Interior minister announces final legislative election results for Beirut
LBC Sat TV, Beirut
30 May 05
Lebanese Interior Minister Hasan al-Sab’a has said that the legislative
elections held in Beirut yesterday went on “smoothly as planned”,
Lebanese LBC SAT television reported today.
At a news conference he held at the Interior Ministry headquarters
in the Lebanese capital to announce the results of the first round
of the Lebanese parliamentary elections which was held in Beirut
district on 29 May, Al-Sab’a began by reading the following statement:
“We welcome you again. As you know, this news conference is being
held to announce the final results of the first stage of the
parliamentary elections, which covered the capital, Beirut, in its
three districts. The competent registration committees completed
their work after midnight Sunday. As you saw, the elections proceeded
smoothly as planned yesterday. There were no security incidents or
major administrative problem that could have affected the course
of the elections. But a few hours after the end of the polls, and
as the preliminary results started to appear, some people were not
pleased with the success that the state achieved in organizing the
electoral process. Some intruders tried to carry out subversive acts
to distort the achievement and provoke unrest. Others took advantage
of what happened to once again spread rumours and baseless accusations
against the state and the Interior Ministry in particular and to cast
doubts on their neutrality.
“We took it upon ourselves to hold free and honest elections. We
once against underscore this commitment. Such false accusations
will not stop us from continuing what we started in the first stage
of the elections and applying it to the remaining stages, in full
neutrality. We will take all the necessary measures, through the
security forces, to maintain citizens’ security and ensure that the
electoral process will proceed smoothly in all its stages.
“The final official results as issued by the Higher Registration
Committees are as follows:
“Beirut First Electoral District , which includes Al-Ashrafiyah,
Al-Mazra’ah, Al-Sayfi
“Number of candidates: 10
“Number of voters: 135,664
“Number of people who cast their votes: 42,801
“Invalid ballots: 731
“Valid ballots: 42,070
“Voter turnout: 31 per cent.
“Number of seats: 6 (2 Sunnis, 1 Maronite, 1 Roman Catholic, 1 Roman
Orthodox, 1 Evangelical)
“Sunni winners:
“1. Sa’d-al-Din Rafiq al-Hariri: Number of votes: 39,499
“2. Ammar Umar al-Huri: Number of votes: 30,741.
“Sunni losers:
“1. Ahmad Muhammad Dabbagh: 7,318 votes
“2. Jihad Munir al-Dana: 253 votes
“Roman Orthodox winner: Jubran Ghassan Tuwayni: Number of votes: 30,591
“Roman Orthodox losers:
“1. Khalil Emile Brummanah: 6,582 votes
“2. Jacques Jean Eli Tamir: 23 votes
“Roman Catholics: (1 seat)
“The winner: Michel Pierre Fir’awn: Uncontested
“Moronites (1 seat):
“The winner: Solanje Louis Tutanji: Uncontested
“Evangelical: (1 seat)
“The winner: Basim Ramzi al-Shab: Uncontested
” Beirut Second Electoral District , which includes Al-Musaytibah,
Al-Bashurah, Al-Rumayl
“Number of candidates: 17
“Number of voters: 141,005
“Number of people who cast their votes: 42,222
“Invalid ballots: 482.
“Valid ballots: 41,734
“Voter turnout: 29.6 per cent.
“Number of seats: 6 (2 Sunnis, 1 Shi’i, 1 Roman Orthodox, 1 minorities,
1 Armenian Orthodox)
“Sunni winners:
“1. Bahij Bahij Tabbarah: Number of votes: 27,981
“2. Walid Ahmad Idu: Number of votes: 25,123
“Sunni losers:
“1. Adnan Ahmad Araqji: 7,379
“2. Badr Rashid al-Haj Badr al-Tabish: 6,182
“3. Ibrahim Muhammad Dallal al-Halabi: 3,614
“4. Zuhayr Ibrahim al-Khatib: 1,048
“5. Nabilah Muhammad Sa’b: 110
“6. Ahmad Yusuf Yasin: 28
“The Shi’i winner: Amin Muhammad Shirri: Number of votes: 31,859
“Shi’i losers:
“1. Ibrahim Muhammad Mahdi Shams-al-Din: 4,178
“2. Ali Rashid Shahrur: 491
“3. Salah-al-Din Nizam Usyran: 45
“Roman Orthodox (1 seat)
“The winner is Atif Murshid Saliba Majdalani: Number of votes: 26,163
“The loser is Najah Anis Wakim: Number of votes: 14,231.
“The minorities’ seat:
“The winner: Nabil Musa de Freyj: Number of votes: 27,364
“The loser: Raymond George Asmar: Number of votes: 6,212
“The Armenian Orthodox seat:
“The winner is Yeghya Hajejirian: Uncontested
” Beirut Third Electoral District , which includes Dar al-Muraysah,
Ra’s Beirut, Ziqaq al-Balat, al-Mudawwar, al-Marfa, and Mina al-Husun:
“Number of candidates: 9
“Number of voters: 146,956
“Number of people who cast their votes: 31,537
“Invalid ballots: 1,388.
“Valid ballots: 30,155
“Voter turnout: 20 per cent.
“Number of seats: 7 (2 Sunnis, 1 Shi’i, 1 Druze, 1 Catholic Armenian,
2 Orthodox Armenian)
“Sunni winners:
“1. Muhammad Jamil Qabbani: 24,527
“2. Ghinwah Adnan Jallul: 23,731
“Sunni losers:
“1. Adnan Khudur Trabulsi: 5,448
“2. Yahya Khudur Fattah Ahmad: 1,765
“Shi’i winner: Ghazi Ali Yusuf: uncontested
“Druze winner: Ghazi Hani al-Aridi: Uncontested
“The Catholic Armenian winner: Serje Berje Tursarkisian: Uncontested
“The Orthodox Armenian winners:
“1. Jean Latfik Ovasovian: Uncontested
“2. Hagop Setrak Kasarjian: Uncontested
“These are the official results that have been issued by the Interior
Ministry.”
Minister Al-Sab’a then took questions from reporters. Asked about
candidate [and leader of the People’s Party] Najah Wakim’s complaint
about an attack on his office last night and the accusations he
levelled to the government and others, the minister said: “Let us go
back to the situation before the incident. Since he began his election
campaigning, Najah Wakim had been charging the atmosphere and directing
accusations in every direction. He accused official quarters. You know
very well how we acted, with full neutrality. Those accusations created
a charged climate. The person who was mentioned in the statement of the
Interior Security Forces yesterday fabricated that incident and added
to the tension.” Al-Sab’a said that that person fired three shots near
Wakim’s office and that a number of people who were in his company
also had a quarrel with the people who were in the office. He said
the investigations were going on and the results would be announced.
Al-Sab’a said the Interior Ministry received many contacts from the
European and UN observers “to congratulate us on the way the elections
were conducted”.
The minister attributed the low voter turnout to two factors:
The boycott of the vote by some groups and the fact that nine
candidates had already won unopposed. He described the boycott as a
“democratic” practice. But he rejected terms like “east Beirut” and
“west Beirut”. The Lebanese citizens paid a very heavy price for these
wartime expressions, and hopefully we have abandoned them once and
for all, he said. He stressed that the Interior Ministry “succeeded”
in this first stage of elections and said the same measures would be
taken with regard to the three remaining stages.