Region | Lebanon
Live blog: Lebanese elections
Lebanese streamed to their hometowns on Sunday to vote in crucial elections.
- Mohammed Almezel, Deputy Managing Editor
- Published: 11:13 June 7, 2009
- Image Credit: Gulf News
- Mohammed Almezel, Deputy Managing Editor, blogs from Lebanon
Lebanese streamed to their hometowns on Sunday to vote in crucial elections. The race for the 128-member parliament is viewed by many as setting Lebanon's political course for the next four years, with repercussions beyond this tiny Arab country's borders. Mohammed Almezel, Deputy Managing Editor, blogs from Lebanon.
2:15 am local time: The Hezbollah-led opposition just conceded. The biggest looser is Michel Aoun. Sources in his campaign tell me Aoun might loose big even in his Metn stronghold.
Saad Hariri's March 14 could win as many as 72 seats, the biggest upset ever in Lebanon's election history.
1:40 am local time: March 14's supporters have started to celebrate. Fireworks lit the skies in different areas, traditional celebratory gunshots are also being heard. Outgoing prime minister Fouad Siniora just delivered what seemed to be a victory speech, extending "hand of goodwill and cooperation" to the opposition.
The results are still coming, but it has become clear the March 14, led by Saad Hariri, has secured 68 seats so far.
12:45 am local time: According to Gulf News sources, the pro-western March 14 coalition is heading towards a slim victory over the Hezbollah-led opposition.
March 14 will win at least 67 seats, of the total 128, according to the estimates based on initial counting and sources in different polling centres.
17:22 local time: Another sms: it was a fight between Sa'ad Hariri's Future Movement and Nabih Berri's Amal that led to the shooting, which injured two people near the Future TV in Qintari area near Rawsheh.
17:20 local time: It seems the number of 'minor incidents' is on the rise as we near the 7pm voting deadline. Just received an sms saying a supporter of former prime minister Omar Karame was injured in a clash with the supporters of a rival candidate in Tripoli, in the north. But seriously, it is relatively quiet compared to previous years.
17:10 local time: Nayla Tueni, the youngest candidate, urged the army to interfere because Aoun's supporters were "beating up" her supporters outside the polling station in Ashrafiyeh in east Beirut.
17:00 local time: A friend just rang up and said two people were injured after an unknown gunman shot at a gathering near Future TV HQ in Rawsheh area in Beirut. The army is on it and looking for the assailant.
16:55 local time: One wishes there is an election here more often. I got a prime table at Al Nejmeh Square's (the Parliament square) Rotana Cafe. Usually it takes begging to get a remote single chair table if you show up without reservation. However, I did not stay for long. I just wanted to experience the feeling of getting a table there. I moved to next door Place d'etoile. It is more like me.
16:30 local time: I'm watching the press conference of Minister of Interior Ziad Baroud. He says all is well and going smoothly. I tend to believe him, not just because he always seemed sincere, but also because he usually gives you the bad news first.
Today, he was the star of the moment, hopping in a military helicopter from town to village, making sure things go as planned. But this being Lebanon, where complaining about anything and everything is a national civic duty, some candidates said Baroud was doing "a lousy job".
But it is the first time in Lebanon's history, the elections are held in one day instead of the usual four phases.
14:55 local time: Frenjieh is back. The flamboyant pro-Syria former minister is said to be riding high in his northern district Zgherta. Turnout reached 55 per cent. Most voters interviewed by one TV station said they voted for Sulaiman Frenjieh.
Too bad for Michel Mouwwad, loosing his debut polls.
14:45 local time: Future has deployed more than 50,000 campaign workers, a team leader having lunch in Hamra tells me. The sky is really blue in Beirut, as Hariri promised.
14:40 local time: All TV stations report strong voter turnout, 55 per cent in some areas and we have more than 4 hours to go. But they also reported slow procedures and delays causing long queues.
14:30 local time: Defence Minister Elias Al Mur says after voting in the Metn's village of Bteghrine, that Lebanon's Christians are "in danger". He didn't say from whom or what.
A friend of mine from the area said: "It seems the minister's father, (the legendary lawmaker Michel Al Mur, who is running against Christian leader Michel Aoun's list) is worried for the first time since he became an MP in 210 B.C."
14:00 local time: Minister of Communication Jebran Basil, who is running for office on the opposition list in the northern town of Batroun, had to come on TV to ask his supporters to add his father's name Georgi on the ballot paper. This is because the March 14 alliance brought a man by the name Jebran Basil and paid him to run against the minister and split the vote.
Reminds me of the Eddie Murphy movie in which he ran for and won a seat in the Congress because his name was similar to the long-time representative who died few weeks before the elections.
March 14 is being described as pro-Western. I think they are taking it literally.
I heard they did the same thing against a Hezbollah candidate, Ali Maqdad, in the Beqaa Valley.
12:40 pm local time: My friend sent an sms 10 minutes later saying the situstion is now fine. Tempers have been running high in Sidon since Siniora decided to run in the city against the longtime strongman of Sidon, Sa'ad, an Arab nationalist and key member of the opposition.
12:25pm local time: A journalist friend of mine just called from Sidon, the southern port city, and said the army was firing warning shots in the air to disperse clashing youth and supporters of the rival candidates: Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Osama Sa'ad.
11:55am local time: Every candidate interviewed on Sunday said it was "a festival of democracy", to me it is more of a festival of colours.
My online editor would like that, he keeps asking me to send more 'colour' stories.
Beirut has turned blue with flags and posters of Sa'ad Hariri's Future movement. As you go south, it turns yellow, it's Hezbollah's Dahiya stronghold. Going north: Metn, Keserwan and Jbail, it's orange all the way, Michel Aoun's FPM colour. In between, you will find Waleed Junblatt's red, Nabih Berri's green and Samir Geagea's white and green.
11:15am local time: It is nice to drive around Beirut today. Traffic is unusually smooth, most residents seem to have left north and south to vote in their hometowns. You see, in Lebanon you can only vote in the town or village of your ancestors. Even if you are a third generation Beiruti, you have to go back to Tripoli to vote, for example, if your family comes originally from Tabbaneh.
10:45am local time: Some voters criticized 'the slow voting process' due to huge voter turnout in the morning at Beirut polling centres.
Interior minister just announced increasing the number of ballots.
10:10am local time: TV stations say voter turnout three hours after start of voting was at 11 per cent, unprecedented in Lebanon. In Zahle, in the eastern Beqaa valley, it was at 15 per cent.
"I don't have any concerns over the conduct of the elections. I have concerns over the acceptance of the results by all the major parties," Carter said after visiting a polling station in Beirut. "All the international observers hope and encourage all the parties to accept the result of the election whether they win or lose."
9:30am local time: PM Fouad Siniora votes in Sidon. "I'm happy to see a strong turnout".
9:15am local time: Minister of Interior Ziad Baroud denies there was any 'serious trouble' anywhere. Former US President Jimmy Carter, who is leading an international monitoring group, says "so far so good".
9am local time: Hariri's Future TV says number of buses carrying hundreds of Syrian with Lebanese nationality crossed the border to vote for the opposition.
8:30am local time: President Michel Sulaiman cast his vote in his hometown Amchit, in Jbail district.
"I support all the candidates," he told reporters, obviously trying to quash reports that he was secretly supporting March 14 candidates in that area.
He said "the biggest danger to Lebanon is the Israeli enemy," in response to question about statement issued on Saturday by the head of the Maronite church Cardinal Sfier, who said a victory for the opposition, led by Hezbollah, would "threaten the very essence of the Lebanese entity".
The statement angered the opposition, which has for long accused him of interferring in the polls.
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