Hariri campaign claims victory in Beirut parliamentary election
BRIAN WHITAKER IN BEIRUT
The Guardian – United Kingdom
May 30, 2005
Lebanese voters went to the polls yesterday at the start of the first
parliamentary election in 30 years that has not been marred by civil
war or heavy-handed Syrian meddling.
The campaign, led by Saad Hariri, 35, the son of Rafik Hariri,
the former prime minister who was assassinated in February, was
celebrating victory after incomplete results showed it had swept
Beirut’s 19 parliamentary seats.
The official results are not due until today, and voting in the rest
of the country is still to come.
But a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
confirmed to the Associated Press that the Hariri campaign’s
prediction, with most of the votes counted and the ticket’s margin
of votes, was insurmountable.
After the heady days of street demonstrations that toppled the
Syrian-backed government and helped to drive Syrian forces out of
the country just a few weeks ago, the first phase of the election,
in the capital, Beirut, proved an anti-climax.
Amid complaints of a carve-up by political leaders – 10 of the 19
Beirut seats have already returned candidates unopposed – the big
question was how many of the city’s 420,000 electors would bother
to vote.
Last night, Hassan al-Sabaa, the interior minister, put turnout at
28%, which was less than the 35% for the last election under Syrian
domination in 2000, an embarrassment to the Hariri bloc.
In an effort to get the voters out earlier in the day, fleets of cars
decorated with Hariri posters, ferried supporters to the polls.
Voting appeared fairly brisk in the morning but had dwindled to a
trickle by early afternoon.
An interior ministry official put the turnout during the first six
hours at only 18.5%.
Wearing jeans and an open-neck shirt and surrounded by bodyguards
in suits, Mr Hariri toured the polling stations, where supporters
showered him with rice and chanted his father’s name. He also visited
to his father’s grave.
Riding a wave of sympathy for his murdered father, who many believe
was killed by pro-Syrian elements, he urged people to vote “against
the criminals”.
“The people will have their say today and demonstrate their loyalty
to Rafik Hariri,” he said. “Those who are against us today do not
want a unified country or a unified Beirut.”
Elsewhere, supporters of Christian leader Michel Aoun, who has not
been included in Hariri’s alliance, handed out stickers urging voters
to boycott “the appointments” (as they describe the election).
The Armenian Tashnag party, which is also disaffected over the backroom
electoral deals, issued leaflets saying: “No participation without
proper representation for all in Beirut.”
At a polling station near the American University, one disgruntled
voter said he was supporting an independent candidate. “We are not
against Saad Hariri,” he said, “but we don’t want the people that he
has put here for us. We want to choose our own people.”
More than 100 observers from the EU and UN watched the vote for
irregularities, the first time Lebanon has permitted foreign scrutiny.
“I see it as a potential for a new start,” US senator Joseph Biden,
who came to watch the balloting, told Associated Press. Mr Biden
said 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”.