Lebanon: Anti-Syrian bloc sweeps first vote (photos)

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | May 30th, 2005 | By Mitchell Prothero

[M. Espinola]

BEIRUT -- Saad Hariri swept to victory in the first round of Lebanon's post-occupation elections yesterday and immediately proclaimed the result a triumph for his father, the victim of a still-unsolved assassination in February.

Saad (R) and Nazek (L) Hariri, the son and the widow of former slain Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, celebrate.

Nazek al-Hariri, widow of the slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri

Supporters of the Lebanese Forces, the main Christian militia during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, wave their group's flag and celebrate during election day in Beirut, Sunday, May 29th, 2005.

Lebanese supporters of Saad al-Hariri, the son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, celebrate in the streets of Beirut

A Lebanese nun casts her vote at a polling station in Beirut

A Lebanese army officer on a tank patrols in front of a giant poster showing electoral candidates, in Beirut.

Lebanese children take part in rally in support of Saad Hariri.

Volunteers carry an injured voter up the stairs of polling station in Beirut

UN electoral expert Nguyen Dong, right, looks at a man casting his ballot in a polling station in Beirut

A Lebanese Muslim cleric helps his mother

Saad al-Hariri

Hind Hariri, left, daughter of Lebanon's slain former Premier Rafik Hariri, is accompanied by her mother Nazek

European Union Chief of Election Observer Jose Ignacie Salafranca (R)

[Neville72]

FREEDOM ON THE MARCH! It's Bush's fault.

[Bahbah]

I was listening to NPR on the way to work the other day. They were doing a piece about Lebanon. Here is the gist of it: Nothing really very good happened or is happening in Lebanon; if something good is happening, George Bush didn't have anything to do with it; it won't work anyway. Ken Tomlinson, are you listening?

[LoudRepublicangirl]

I have a friend who is Christian Lebanese. She loves the U.S. and thinks we are the only country on earth that has it's act together.

[M. Espinola]

The NPR crowd can not except reality unless anti-American radical leftists or terrorists are involved.

[Dallas59]

I wonder when the Syrian and Iranian car bombs start?

[M. Espinola]

"I wonder when the Syrian and Iranian car bombs start?"

I regret to say I was wondering the very same. This vote must be killing the death cultists of Hizballah.