ARMENIAN GAIN SIX SEATS IN THE PARLIAMENT OF LEBANON

armradio.am
08.06.2009 18:30

The leader of Lebanon’s governing pro-Western coalition has claimed
victory over a Hezbollah-led bloc in the country’s parliamentary
election, the BBC reported.

Saad Hariri said his 14 March alliance would retain its majority in
the 128-seat parliament.

A key Christian ally of the Hezbollah-led alliance, which is supported
by Syria and Iran, admitted defeat in Sunday’s elections. Turnout
was more than 50%.

"Congratulations to you, congratulations to freedom, congratulations
to democracy," Mr Hariri told a crowd of his cheering supporters in
the capital Beirut.

Saad Hariri said "the only winner is democracy in Lebanon." "There is
no winner and loser in these elections, the only winner is democracy
and Lebanon," he added.

Mr Hariri’s coalition was expected to win 70 or 71 seats in the new
assembly, while the Hezbollah alliance would get 58 seats, Lebanese
media predicted.

That would almost exactly replicate the balance which existed in the
last parliament.

Voting was reported to have been trouble-free across the country,
although there have been many reports of vote-buying and large numbers
of expatriates being flown home for free to cast votes.

Under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, seats in the 128-member
parliament are split equally between the Muslim population and minority
Christians, who make up an estimated20one-third of Lebanese voters,
with further sub-divisions for various religious sects.

Armenians have six seats in the Parliament of Lebanon. Two mandates
will be given to the Social-Democratic Hnchagian Party, the Liberal
Democratic Party has one mandate. The ARF has gained two seats in
the parliament, and independent Nshan Chinchinyan has won the sixth
mandate.

Which are the expectations of Lebanese Armenian? Editor-in-chief of
the Lebanon based Armenian "Azdak" newspaper, representative of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation Shahen Kandagharyan told "Radiolur"
that all the three Armenian Parties functioning in Lebanon gained
seats in the Parliament and added: "Despite the fact that there is
certain division on the political field between the three parties, all
the three forces discus an consult on national and community issues."

According to the representative of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, the fact of being in different will not prevent the
political forces from having common approaches on pan-Armenian issues.