Agence France Presse
Aug 5 2007

Lebanon vote widens gap among divided Christians
Published: Sunday August 5, 2007

The opposition claimed victory in by-elections on Sunday that have
left the country’s Christians deeply divided ahead of polls to elect
a new president who is traditionally a Christian in Lebanon.

Michel Aoun, a Christian leader from the Syrian-backed opposition,
said his faction had defeated the candidate of the Western-backed
ruling majority by a close margin in the by-election in the Metn
mountains northeast of Beirut.

But the suspense continued as the ruling coalition refused to concede
defeat claiming voter fraud and Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh said
official results were still not known more than seven hours after
voting ended.

Sabeh however declared in a press conference that the ruling majority
candidate, Mohamad Amin Itani, had won as expected a landslide
victory in the other by-election which was also held on Sunday in
Beirut.

The by-elections were held to replace two anti-Syrian lawmakers
killed in attacks blamed by the Western-backed majority on former
powerbroker Damascus, which supports the Hezbollah-led opposition.

The two murdered MPs were industry minister Pierre Gemayel, a
Christian who was gunned down in a Beirut suburb on November 21 last
year, and Sunni Muslim Walid Eido, who was killed in a car bombing in
the capital on June 13.

After the end of the by-elections, the two camps immediately called
for self-restraint, as hundreds of supporters from both sides
gathered in public squares amid a heavy deployement of army and
security forces backed by armored vehicles.

One person was slightly injured by youths throwing stones in Beirut’s
northern suburb of Jdeideh where supporters of the two camps had
gathered in the same public square, an AFP photographer witnessed.

In a televised speech Aoun said that his party’s candidate, Camille
Khoury, beat former president Amin Gemayel, a prominent leader of the
anti-Syrian ruling majority, in the Metn polls.

"We have been informed about the victory of the candidate Camille
Khoury," Aoun said, appealing for calm.

He added that there were attempts to nullify the results from one of
the polling stations because of reported irregularities and urged his
supporters to gather outside his headquarters in Jdeideh.

But Gemayel, leader of the Phalange Party who was running to replace
his slain son Pierre Gemayel, refused to admit defeat and demanded a
rerun of the vote in one mainly Armenian region where he claimed
voter fraud.

"We want elections to be repeated in the Burj Hammud district,"
Gemayel told his supporters gathered in his hometown of Bikfaya.

He said there were reports from that area of people not living there
or deceased casting votes as well as irregularities with voting
cards.

Gemayel said that he would nonetheless accept the official results
expected later during the night.

Aoun’s spokesman Antoine Nasrallah told AFP that Khoury had won by a
close margin of several hundred votes.

The outcome of the poll is expected to set the tone for presidential
elections due to be held in September. Traditionally, the president
is chosen from the Maronite Christian community in Lebanon.

"The legend of Michel Aoun as the sole Christian leader has
crumbled," Walid Jumblatt, a prominent leader of the ruling majority,
told Lebanese television.

"Amin Gemayel has won the political battle. Michel Aoun has fallen
politically despite all his alliances," he said.

Whatever the outcome of the by-elections, parliament’s challenge will
still be to elect a new president to succeed pro-Syrian president
Emile Lahoud by a November 25 deadline.

While the majority controls enough seats to elect a president, it
needs the opposition to take part for the two-thirds quorum required
for parliament to convene.

The by-elections come amid heightened political and security tensions
in the deeply divided country as a deadly showdown between the army
and Islamist extremists in a northern refugee camp continues to rage
after 11 weeks.