Question. How are the district lines for Parliament drawn? Have the Syrians forced them to be favorable to Damascus' interests? When all these Cedar Revolution folks vote, will they be able to give rise to the opposition or are the lines drawn so their strength will be totally diluted?
Lebanon has five provinces.
The Syrian forced the elections to be held on the Province level because it is easier for them to control the elections via intimidation by their secret services.
The opposition was calling for this recent parliamentary elections which scheduled this May to be held on the "county" level, they call it "Kadaa". The county level the politics become more local and the Syrian intimidation will greatly diminish.
When the Syrian will be forced to end their occupation of Lebanon in the next few weeks, and more importantly remove all their oppressive secret service from Lebanon, the opposition will win somewhere between 60% to 70% of the seats regardless if the elections are held on Province level or a country level.