Beirut residents vote in first election free of Syrian meddling to elect Hariri’s son
ZEINA KARAM
AP Worldstream
May 30, 2005
Riding a sympathy vote, the son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri appeared headed toward victory in parliamentary elections in
Beirut, the first in the country to be held largely free of Syrian
domination.
Voters turned out, albeit in small numbers, Sunday to pay tribute
to the leader whose February assassination triggered international
anger and street protests that ultimately drove the Syrian army out
of Lebanon.
The list led by Saad Hariri, the son of the assassinated former
premier, was celebrating victory Sunday night after incomplete results
showed it had swept Beirut’s 19 parliamentary seats.
Official results are not due until Monday, and voting in the rest of
the country is still to come.
But a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
confirmed the Saad Hariri campaign’s prediction, with most of the
votes counted and the ticket’s margin of votes insurmountable.
Many observers expect the polls, the first free of Syrian meddling
in 29 years, to sweep the anti-Syrian opposition to power and install
a new parliament, removing the last vestiges of Damascus’ control.
“This is the first time I voted in my life,” said 70-year-old Elaine
Antoun, smiling as she emerged from a polling station in Beirut’s
mainly Christian Ashrafiyeh district. “The past few months made me
feel there might be hope yet for this country.”
After polls closed, Interior Minister Hassan Sabei said unofficial
results showed voter turnout in Beirut was about 28 percent compared
with 35 percent in the 2000 parliamentary elections.
The weak turnout reflected public dissatisfaction amid calls for a
boycott, complaints that the ticket of Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim,
lacked representation of political factions, and lack of challengers
in some constituencies. Television stations reported that the boycott
was mainly in Christian parts of the city.
Hundreds of Hariri supporters danced and cheered outside the family’s
palatial residence in Beirut’s Koreitem neighborhood as returns tallied
by his campaign showed the Hariri slate winning Beirut’s 10 contested
seats. Fireworks lit the night sky as the Hariri family went to the
grave of the slain leader late Sunday to pray.
The Hariri list won the city’s other nine uncontested seats by default.
With 90 percent of the vote counted, Saad Hariri received over 35,000
ballots and was the biggest vote-getter in Beirut, his campaign said.
Sunday’s vote, which Sabei called “trouble-free,” was the first stage
of a four-part election. Other regions of Lebanon vote on the next
three Sundays.
There was one minor incident, when fistfights broke out late Sunday
between supporters of opposition leader Walid Jumblatt and rival
Najah Wakim.
The two sides threw bottles and rocks at each other before security
forces intervened and restored calm, witnesses said.
Stefane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General said Kofi
Annan was very encouraged byA theA democraticA conduct of the first
round of the Lebanese parliamentary elections and hoped the remaining
rounds would take place in the same peaceful atmosphere.
“These elections constitute a major opportunity for the Lebanese people
to shape their own future, to strengthen their political institutions
and to restore their full sovereignty,” he said.
Rafik Hariri’s widow, Nazek, led the voting, arriving within an hour
of polls opening at 7 a.m. (0400GMT) to cast her ballots. Polls closed
11 hours later.
“I have high hopes today that we will uncover the truth of who planned
and carried out the crime against my beloved husband, who in life
built this country and in his martyrdom achieved national unity,”
Nazek Hariri told reporters after voting.
The vote was watched closely by the United States and other outside
governments that pushed for a Syrian troop withdrawal and on-time
elections, despite a divisive election law.
Syrian forces withdrew in April after mass demonstrations in Lebanon
and relentless international pressure sparked by the February
assassination of the former premier. The Feb. 14 bombing also killed
20 others.
More than 100 observers from the European Union and the United
Nations watched the vote for irregularities, the first time Lebanon
has permitted foreign scrutiny.
“I see it as a potential for a new start,” U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden,
who came to watch the balloting, told The Associated Press.
The Delaware Democrat acknowledged that the new parliament may not be
fundamentally different from the previous one, but said the atmosphere
had improved because “there’s an occupying force that’s gone.”
In a statement issued by U.N. headquarters in Beirut, U.N. envoy Terje
Roed-Larsen said the elections “represent a significant step for the
Lebanese people in their quest for recovering their full political
independence and sovereignty.”
About 420,000 people were eligible to vote in Beirut. At stake were
19 of the legislature’s 128 seats, divided equally among Muslims
and Christians.
For some, elections free of Syrian influence provided a chance for
a new beginning.
“I am voting for the future,” said Yehia Arakji, a 62-year-old merchant
who voted for Hariri’s list in Beirut’s Muslim sector. “It is time
for the Lebanese to decide their own fate.”
Others expressed frustration with an election law that marginalized
many factions, and infighting that has splintered the opposition.
“I am doing my duty by voting, but I don’t have much hope,” said
Wardeh Hamad, 40. “The politicians wasted an opportunity, each went
his own way.”
Prime Minister Najib Mikati repeated Sunday the widely proclaimed
contention that the election law drawn up in 2000 during the Syrian
era was unfair, but said the elections were still “an important
achievement.”
Saad Hariri urged voters to go to the polls on his father’s behalf.
“We say to people go out and vote to show gratitude to that person
who sacrificed his blood and life,” he said.
Those calling for a boycott were mainly followers of Christian
opposition leader Michel Aoun, who is fielding his own candidates
elsewhere in the country. His supporters, wearing orange T-shirts,
stood outside polling stations distributing paper slips that read
“Boycott the appointments.”
The main Armenian political party, Tashnag, also urged supporters
to boycott.
Wakim criticized the Hariri ticket and what he called the power
of money.
“I wish we had a thousandth or a millionth of their money so we could
fight in all of Beirut,” he said.
Rafik Hariri _ who was prime minister for 10 of the last 15 years and
credited with rebuilding Lebanon from the destruction of the 1975-90
civil war _ was a billionaire businessman.