REPORT PREDICTS DISTRIBUTION OF VOTES IN UPCOMING BY-ELECTIONS
Daily Star staff
Daily Star, Lebanon
Aug 4 2007
BEIRUT: According to a report issued Thursday, Phalange Party leader
former President Amine Gemayel will get 60 percent of Maronite votes
in the Metn by-election, while FPM candidate Kamile Khoury will
get 85 percent of Armenian votes Sunday. The data was published by
Information International ahead of next Sunday’s by-elections in Metn
and Beirut to fill the seats left vacant after the assassinations of
March 14 MPs Walid Eido and Pierre Gemayel.
According to Information International, votes in the Metn and
Beirut’s second district are very affected by the social and sectarian
distribution of voters in each of the districts.
Taking into consideration factors such as religion, media, political
campaigning and slogans, the statement predicted Gemayel would receive
60 percent of Maronite voters, while Khoury would get 85 percent of
the Armenian votes and 55 percent of the Orthodox votes.
It said both candidates would get an equal number of votes from
Catholics.
Information International took into consideration the increased
emigration rates of Armenians, the 10 percent who will refrain from
voting and the 6 percent of undecided voters.
In 2005, there was reportedly 51.2 percent participation in the Metn
among the 163,069 registered voters, said the statement.
Thirty percent of Beirut’s registered voters participated in the
Beirut polls in 2005 said Information International.
The statement predicted that Future Movement candidate Mohammad Amin
Itani will win the seat in Beirut.