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LEBANON: March 14 Marches Ahead
By Mona Alami
BEIRUT, Jun 8 (IPS) - The Jun. 7 election in Lebanon has provided another dramatic turn of events in
the country's tumultuous political arena. While early opinion polls had pointed
to a landslide sweep for the March 8 opposition that prominently includes
Hizbullah, the Western and Arab backed March 14 coalition won the majority of
parliamentary seats in a surprise victory.
Since the last parliamentary election in 2005, Lebanon has been torn between
the two movements March 14 and March 8. The March 8 pro-Iranian and
pro-Syrian coalition includes the Shia Hizbullah and Amal parties, the Syrian
Social National Party (SSNP) and the Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM).
Lebanon's anti-Syrian March 14 movement is comprised of the Christian
Phalange party and Lebanese Forces (LF) as well as the Druze Progressive
Socialist Party (PSP) and the Sunni Future Movement.
The Jdeidani family, which came from Sweden to vote, mirrors the internal
rift that divides Lebanon. "We are eleven brothers; some of us support
General Michel Aoun (who leads the FPM), while the rest are with the LF,"
Jean Jdeidani told IPS.
People waited hours under the scorching sun Sunday to cast their ballot. "I
have been waiting since seven in the morning," Alia, a Future Movement
supporter who was queuing to vote in the eastern village Saadnayel said late
in the day. "I am here to show the world I want an independent Lebanon."
As the polls closed at 7pm, the ministry of interior reported an
unprecedented turnout. It surpassed 54 percent, according to interior
minister Ziad Baroud, way ahead of the 2005 turnout of 45.8 percent.
"Some Beirutis waited hours to vote in the Beirut 3 district, an area
traditionally known to be a March 14 bastion," said Future MP Mohamad
Kabani. He said this year's 40 percent turnout in the district was a massive
improvement on the 25 percent witnessed in 2005.
Kabani said the significant improvement in turnout was in part a reaction to
a speech by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah where he said "May 7
was a glorious day in the Resistance's history." More than 70 people died in
clashes between pro-government and opposition gunmen in Beirut and
around in May of last year.
The turnout now showed that the Lebanese want "a strong and independent
state," Kabani said.
But statistician Abdo Saad, director of the Beirut Centre for Research and
Information, described the election as the most disgraceful in the history of
Lebanon.
"I have been saying for days that any government that would emerge from
the current elections - whether opposition or majority led - would be an
illegitimate one due to the massive vote buying that has been taking place in
recent weeks," he said.
Saad said the turnout of 70 percent seen in the Keserwan region was due to
expats bribed into coming back to vote.
He said it was finally the vote in Zahleh in the east of Lebanon that shaped
the new Lebanese parliament. A Christian area, the city is represented in
parliament by seven MPs, and the March 14 coalition won all of the seats.
In the end, March 14 retained its parliamentary majority with 71 deputies
(including two independents) while the opposition March 8 group won 57 of
the 128 seats.
"The smear campaign used by March 14 against Hizbullah, which was
accused of being Syrian and a threat to Lebanon, seems to have worked,"
said FPM MP Alain Aoun.
But the elections alone will not decide the fate of Lebanon. In the next few
days, the composition of the next government, and whether or not it
includes the opposition, will weigh heavily on the country's stability and
peace. (END/2009)
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