VICTORIOUS: Lebanon's anti-Syrian Christian leader Michel Aoun waves at a polling station in Beirut's suburbs on June 12.
Posted on 06/13/2005 10:47:41 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Firebrand former Christian exile Michel Aoun scored a surprise victory in the third round of Lebanon's elections, dealing a major blow to the opposition alliance that led the campaign to drive out Syrian troops.
Aoun's unlikely alliance with longtime Syrian allies swept the board in constituencies reserved for Christians in Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, according to preliminary results from Sunday's vote.
Sunday's vote, the most hotly contested so far of the four-round elections, was the first since Syrian forces left in April after a 29-year military presence in the turmoil that followed the February killing of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
"I acknowledge that he won," said Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a key figure in the anti-Syrian opposition who was himself reelected unopposed in his fiefdom in the Shouf mountains southeast of Beirut.
"The Christian extremists have vanquished the moderates," Jumblatt said, accusing Aoun of serving Syrian interests.
Aoun, an outspoken retired general who headed a military government in the last days of the 1975-90 civil war and was later kicked out by Syria, retorted on Monday that Jumblatt was "a dangerous man. He doesn't believe in democracy."
Official results expected on Monday or Tuesday will give a clearer picture of the future shape of parliament with just 28 of the 128 seats up still up for grabs in the final round next Sunday.
The fierce battle between Aoun's Free Patriotic Current and the opposition alliance for the Christian vote prompted record turnout in those constituencies, with participation at 62 percent in the district where Aoun stood.
Local media underscored the significance of Aoun's victory for the role of Christians in Lebanon's multi-confessional political makeup.
"Aoun brings Christians into the political game, all four confessions are now represented," wrote the left-wing daily As Safir, in reference to Lebanon's Druze, Shia, Sunni - all Muslim - and Christian communities.
"In light of the results so far announced, one can say that ... Christians have at long last a leader," it said.
But the anti-Syrian An Nahar newspaper warned: "Now Lebanon has two choices: reconciliation or extremism."
Aoun, 70, who ruffled feathers as soon as he returned to Lebanon from France last month after the departure of the Syrians, has insisted that he was running on a non-sectarian, anti-corruption and national platform.
"Michel Aoun is not seeking to become the leader of the Christians but to have a national standing," his spokesman Elias Zoghbi said.
Sunday's setback for the opposition was a far cry from the first round in the capital two weeks ago when a coalition headed by Hariri's son and anointed heir Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, swept every seat.
Aoun did not even contest the Beirut seats in the face of the alliance between Hariri, Jumblatt and the Lebanese Forces of jailed Christian former warlord Samir Geagea.
In the Bekaa the Shia coalition of Hizbullah and Amal that swept last weekend's election in the south, is tipped to win in two districts, while Jumblatt conceded that Aoun's list had won the town of Zahle.
"I hope we don't lose the north too," Jumblatt said, referring to the final round of the elections next weekend that will now determine whether the opposition alliance can realize its ambition to dominate the new legislature.
The third round vote was held amid US and opposition concerns that Syrian intelligence agents remained in Lebanon despite the troop pullout.
US President George W. Bush warned Syria on June 10 that it needed to "not only remove their military, but to remove intelligence officers as well".
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has ordered a UN verification mission back to Lebanon to check out the allegations.
Howard Dean must be enraged about this: "Under Bush's watch, Lebanon is becoming a Christian theocracy!"
......to be called,......'Tongues' T.V.
/sarcasm?
YIPEEEE! :)
"The Christian extremists have vanquished the moderates," Jumblatt said, accusing Aoun of serving Syrian interests."
Coming from a Muslim terror monger that's rich.
The Christians are bound to support continued Syrian interference. Number one, once the Syrians are out, Hizbollah is going to run wild in Lebanon, as the proxy of Syria, and bring on another civil war. The last one didn't go well for Lebanese Christians. Number two, Walid Jumblatt and his Druze militia helped dismantle the pluralistic state that was pre-PLO Lebanon (acknowledging of course that the Moslem terrorist paramilitary -- such as it was -- with Syrian assistance helped bring down the similar arrangement during the 1950s) and had no intention of allowing any Christian voice in the post-Syrian Lebanese gov't.
Civil war it is.
Syria is in bad shape today. No way to send troops or weapons to Lebanon which is under international scrutiny.
Hizbollah could not go wild, they are contained in a political process which will define their whole future, though they created lately an unsolvable piece of puzzle. They claimed, besides Shebaa farms , seven villages in the Northern part of Israel that are legally and historically out of the internationnally recognized border of Lebanon. I think that this is a deceptive maneuver aimed at gaining internal support in front of the UNSCR1559. So if this maneuver comes to execution, they will have to face anihilation, nothing less.
Wait, I'm confused here. Is he an allie of Syria or not?
How is Hizbollah contained by a political process? The same way that the PLO is? Hizbollah's land claims are real, and are basically identical with those of the PLO -- that Israel doesn't exist, that every bit of Israel is actually Arab territory seized by European non-Moslem non-Arab imperialists.
But I agree, Hizbollah won't stop unless it is annihilated -- and the same goes for the PLO.
Hizbollah has only two alternatives: either it continues as a political unarmed party with transparent finances and activities, contained within its country, after being held accountable for what it is accountable for, or it simply gets spanked. It is still time for them to make the good choice. It is not up to me to determine when it would be too late for them.
Technically speaking Hizbollah is not similar by definition to the PLO. It is a theocratic shiite party, whereas the PLO was, at least when I fought it before 1982, a secular, while leaning towards sunni islam, terrorist organization.
Now you begin to find out what stays between sunnis and shiites in Iraq. As for Hizbollah claiming non Lebanese land, that is a capital error from them. Even, as a Lebanese party, its unilateral decisions and behaviors are being challenged by other Lebanese political entities, now that Syria withdrew from Lebanon.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.