Fierce election battles shape up in the North, Metn, West Bekaa
By Nayla Assaf
Daily Star staff
Saturday, May 21, 2005
BEIRUT: As election day draws closer, the electoral battle is expected
to be fierce in North Lebanon, the Metn and the Western Bekaa. With the
bloc of slain former Premier Rafik Hariri set to win all the seats in
the capital and the Hizbullah-Amal coalition those of South Lebanon,
there is unlikely to be much of an electoral battle in Beirut and South
Lebanon. The much anticipated battle has shifted to other provinces.
In the Northern Metn District, which will witness parliamentary
elections with the rest of Mount Lebanon on July 12, electoral
alliances are still unclear. But the opposition is expected to announce
a joint list, grouping Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM),
Metn MP Nassib Lahoud’s Democratic Renewal Movement, the Phalange
rank and file movement loyal to former President Amin Gemayel and
the Lebanese Forces (LF).
However, an observer of the electoral scene in the Metn said: “the
prospect of an alliance is still dependent on alliances in other
areas. If the FPM allies with the Progressive Socialist Party and
the LF in the Baabda-Aley district, then its alliance with the rest
of the opposition will go smoothly in the Metn.”
The picture might be clearer by Sunday, when Metn MP Pierre Gemayel
is expected to announce his list at a rally in Bikfaya.
However, it remains unclear whether an opposition alliance in the
Metn will include former MP Gabriel Murr, who received the backing
of the opposition, united when he ran for the by-election in 2002.
Earlier squabbles among the opposition had triggered reports the
FPM might seek an alliance with Deputy Speaker Michel Murr, a close
Syrian loyalist.
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But the FPM denied the reports, and Murr is more likely to unite with
the Tashnag Armenian party and the loyalist faction of the Phalange,
headed by former minister Karim Pakradouni.
But by all accounts, a deal between the FPM and PSP leader Walid
Jumblatt in Baabda-Aley will determine the alliances among the
opposition in the rest of the country.
In Second district in North Lebanon, which groups Tripoli, Minieh,
Zghorta, Batroun and Koura, the opposition is likely to face a new
potential alliance between former Premier Omar Karami and former
Interior Minister, Suleiman Franjieh.
But the opposition in the North, represented by such figures as Batroun
MP Boutros Harb, opposition figure Samir Franjieh, Zghorta MP Nayla
Mouawad, Koura MP Farid Makari, and Tripoli MP Samir Jisr, who are
close to Saad Hariri, is set to win more seats than the loyalist list.
It is still not clear, however, if the FPM, which enjoys strong
support in the North, will be part of that coalition.
George Haddad of the FPM said: “The North will be part of a package
deal.
Either we will ally with the rest of the opposition in all the country
on the basis of a joint agenda to combat corruption, or we simply
will not.”
In the Western Bekaa, the battle is between traditional pro-Syrian
figures such as Elie Ferzli, Faysal Daoud and Abdel-Rahim Mrad and
an odd coalition bringing together the loyalist Amal Movement with
representatives of the opposition.