Al-Jazeera, Qatar
June 12 2005

Vote under way in key Lebanon areas

Sunday 12 June 2005, 15:05 Makka Time, 12:05 GMT

Sixty-three parliamentary seats are up for grabs in Sunday’s vote

Voters are heading into polling stations in central and eastern
Lebanon to decide nearly half the legislative seats, in the third
stage of staggered parliamentary elections.

A total of 1.25 million people are eligible to vote in the Mount
Lebanon and eastern Bekaa Valley regions on Sunday in the penultimate
stage of Lebanon’s first national election without the presence of
Syrian troops for three decades.

The most heated contests involve Christian leader Michel Aoun and his
allies against a coalition, led by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, in
the central Baabda-Aley constituency and against a Christian alliance
in the Byblos-Kesrwan district.

Aljazeera’s correspondent in Lebanon, Ghassan bin Jiddo, reported
that tensions in some districts had proven too much for some voters.

Fighting broke out in Bekaa, and some people have been injured.

Mutual accusations among participants have also emerged in the
al-Matn area. Supporters of the Free National Trend alleged that some
alliances have distributed money to voters in public – an accusation
denied by all opposition parties.

About 100 candidates are competing in Mount Lebanon, with seats
allocated to different sects according to Lebanon’s power-sharing
political system.

Thirty-five seats are up for grabs in Mount Lebanon and 28 in the
Bekaa.

Two seats have been won uncontested in Mount Lebanon – Jumblatt and
ally Marwan Hamadeh, both lawmakers in the outgoing parliament.

Seats in the first two rounds of voting, in Beirut and the south, for
the most part were split almost evenly between opponents of Syria and
supporters of the Islamist Hizb Allah resistance organisation.

Unexpected alliances

Anti-Syrian forces need a strong showing in Sunday’s vote in the
central and eastern regions – at least 45 seats for a majority – to
win a firm grasp on the 128-member parliament.

But the campaign has led to some surprising alliances and left some
races too close to call.

The vote in central Mount Lebanon, the nation’s most populous region,
has been billed as the “mother of all battles” as it pits Jumblatt’s
allies against Aoun’s.

Aoun, who fought and lost a war against Syria in 1989 before going
into a 14-year exile, was one of Syria’s main Lebanese foes, but
recently broke with other opponents of Damascus and forged alliances
with pro-Syrian politicians.

Former exiled Christian General
Michel Aoun is hoping for victory

The anti-Syrian opposition also teamed up with Hizb Allah and the
pro-Syrian Shia Amal in some districts.

Aoun says his feud with Syria is over, now that Damascus has
withdrawn from Lebanon. He is campaigning on a promise to fight the
corruption he blames on Lebanon’s economic ills, including a national
debt of more than $30 billion.

In Metn, the former general has forged an alliance with pro-Syrian
politician Michel Murr and Armenian political party Tashnag, against
an anti-Syrian ticket, headed by legislator Nassib Lahoud and Pierre
Gemayel, son of former President Amin Gemayel.

And in Bekaa, a list backed by Saad al-Din al-Hariri, son of
assassinated former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, is facing off
against pro-Syrian politicians.

Others in the anti-Syrian camp hope the elections, which end on 19
June with voting in the north, will finally end Damascus’s control of
the legislature.

Political tensions have spilled over into violence, and the
government has sent army and police reinforcements to Mount Lebanon,
the historic heart of the country.