Gulf Daily News, Bahrain
Aug 5 2007
Row hits Lebanon poll
BIKFAYA: Lebanon’s Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun claimed
victory for his faction in key by-elections last night, but the
ruling majority refused to concede defeat claiming voter fraud.
Both camps immediately called for self-restraint, awaiting the
official results of the parliamentary by-elections seen as a test for
the country’s divided Christian factions ahead of a presidential
poll.
By late evening, hundreds of supporters from both sides thronged a
public square in Beirut’s northern suburb of Jdeideh, where the two
parties have their headquarters, as army troops and anti-riot police
backed by armoured vehicles deployed heavily in the area to avoid
clashes.
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 polls in the Metn region.
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.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
