Opposition alleges irregularities

Beirut: Many Lebanese were still finding it hard to come to terms with the pro-Western March 14 coalition's decisive victory in the general elections on Monday.

An uneasy calm engulfed the streets of Beirut and surrounding areas early in the morning as people woke up to the election results trickling in on the television. By 3 am, it was clear the March 14 bloc led by Sunni billionaire Sa'ad Hariri was headed for a landslide.

Minutes after Hariri delivered a victory speech at his Beirut palace, the Hezbollah-dominated opposition, which until a few days ago had been supremely confident of victory, conceded defeat, saying it would accept the people's mandate.

But even as people wondered as to how the political drama had played out, key members of the opposition went on the offensive, charging that there had been irregularities in the elections and accusing the Hariri camp of buying the vote.

In back-to-back press briefings, Minister of Interior, Ziad Baroud, announced the official final results. The March 14 coalition, he said, had won 71 seats in the 128-seat parliament. The opposition, led by the Hezbollah movement and Christian leader Michel Aoun, took 57 seats, one seat less than its tally in the outgoing parliament.

According to the results, March 14 also made inroads into the Christian popular vote, a significant political blow to Aoun who, until yesterday, was recognised as the undisputed leader of Lebanon's Christians. The biggest upset, however, was in the opposition stronghold of Zehle, a Christian enclave in the centre of the eastern Beqaa Valley.

"The Lebanese people have voted for democracy and freedom. There are no winners or losers in this election, the only winner is democracy and the biggest winner is Lebanon," Hariri said in his victory speech.

His loyal ally, Druze leader Walid Junblatt, was also graceful in victory saying the opposition, especially Hezbollah, "will not be sidelined".

"Our victory today doesn't mean we will isolate the other parties. More than ever, we need to join hands today," Jumblatt said.

Hezbollah, which was the first opposition party to resign itself to the poll results, was quick to assert that the winners needed to acknowledge the opposition's demands for a greater say in the decision-making process in the interest of the country's stabiity.

But in a statement issued yesterday, the group's parliamentary bloc leader, Mohammad Ra'ad, didn't insist on 'veto power' for the opposition in the new cabinet. "We must though have guarantees that major issues will not be tampered with," he said, referring to the thorny issue of Hezbollah weapons.

Hezbollah and its ally, Amal - the other Shiite group led by speaker Nabih Berri - maintained their strong grip on the south, winning close to 90 per cent of the popular vote and all of the 23 seats on offer in the region.

Berri called for a national unity government, urging all parties to accept the democratic process. Despite the defeat of his allies, Berri said Lebanon "today defeated the chaos and sedition".

But Hezbollah and Amal's other key ally, Aoun, remained silent well into the evening. It is expected that his party, the Free Patriotic Movement, will officially challenge the results at the Constitutional Council.

Several FPM officials have complained of irregularities. "What happened yesterday was a farce. I have never seen such a disgraceful process," said Aoun's ally, MP Hassan Yaqoub, who lost his seat in Zehle.

Yaqoub charged March 14 candidates with "bribing" the voters in broad daylight, "under the eyes of the security forces outside the polling stations".

"We had an uphill battle," said another MP, Simon Abu Ramia. "The entire state agencies were working for them [March 14]. It was unbelievable," he said in a statement. Newspapers said the Sunni votes helped clinched the Zehle district for March 14. "The sectarian divide gives March 14 another majority," said a front page headline in the pro-opposition daily Al Akhbar. It said that 27,000 Sunni voters turned the results around in Zehle.

Another key member of the opposition, prominent Sunni MP Osama Sa'ad, who lost his seat in the southern coastal city of Sidon to outgoing Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, blamed "the money paid to voters and the sectarian sentiments inflamed [by March 14]" for the opposition loss.

In addition to Sa'ad, the big losers in the elections include opposition figures like former prime minister Omar Karame in Tripoli, MP Elie Skaf in Zehle, Minister of Communications Jebran Basil in Batroun, and Deputy Prime Minister Essam Abu Jamra in Ashrafieh.

According to analysts, March 14 won mainly because of the Sunni vote. "They wanted to get back at the opposition for calling the [events of] May 7, 2008, a glorious day," commentator Eisa Al Ayoubi told Gulf News.

Also, analysts said, March 14 was able to fly in the country some 100,000 Lebanese expatriates from the Arab World, the West and Latin America. "They made the difference," the daily Al Akhbar said, estimating that the move cost the Hariri camp more than $1 billion.

Winners

According to the Lebanese Interior Ministry the March 14 coalition secured 71 out of 128 seats while the Hezbollah-led opposition captured 57.

The following are some of the winners:

Sulaiman Franjieh - Zgharta district
Michel Aoun - Kesirwan district
Bahiya Hariri - Sidon district
Fouad Siniora - Sidon district
Nayla Tueni - Beirut district
Sa'ad Hariri - Beirut district