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Low turnout mars Hariri election win in Beirut
BEIRUT - Low turnout in Beirut polls marred a sweeping victory for the son of
slain ex-prime minister Rafik al-Hariri in Lebanon's first parliamentary
election in three decades with no Syrian troops in the country. Many people in Beirut stayed away because Hariri's victory was a foregone conclusion, with nine of the 19 seats falling unopposed to his bloc even before the vote. Though he is a political newcomer, the win makes Hariri, 35, a strong contender to lead the next government and pursue the political and economic policies of his billionaire businessman father, who was assassinated in Beirut on Feb. 14. Hariri has avoided saying publicly if he wants the post. Among major challenges facing Lebanon are redefining ties with Syria, international demands to disarm Shi'ite Muslim Hizbollah guerrillas and tackling a debt of $34 billion. The vote follows two political earthquakes in Lebanon -- Hariri's killing in a bomb blast many Lebanese blamed on Damascus, and the end of Syria's 29-year troop presence. Results announced by Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa showed Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, won 39,500 of 42,000 votes cast in his constituency, the highest number in any of the 10 contested seats in the mainly Sunni Lebanese capital. A pro-Syrian Shi'ite Hizbollah candidate on Hariri's slate was the second highest vote-getter with 32,000. LOW-KEY ELECTION With little competition and a boycott by the main Armenian Tashnag Party and supporters of fiercely anti-Syrian Christian leader Michel Aoun, turnout was thinnest in Christian districts. Beirut had a 34 percent turnout in 2000, when Hariri's father, then cooperating with Syria, also swept the board. For the first time, foreign observers monitored the polls, with a team of more than 100 led by the European Union. "Today was a victory for national unity," Hariri told a jubilant crowd on Sunday night. "This is a victory for Rafik al-Hariri. Today, Beirut showed its loyalty to Rafik al-Hariri." Thousands of supporters drove through the streets, blaring horns and flying Lebanese flags as fireworks lit the night sky over Beirut's center, rebuilt by the slain Hariri from the ruins of the 1975-1990 civil war. Some shots were fired in the air in scuffles between rival groups, but no one was hurt, a security source said. Hariri will also field candidates in northern and eastern Lebanon, seeking 80 to 90 parliamentary seats for his bloc and its allies, a majority that would allow him to push ahead with political, economic and judicial reforms. His father's reform plans were often blocked by Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud. A clear victory for Hariri and his allies in the elections could pile pressure on Lahoud to quit. Rafik al-Hariri's shadow hangs over the May 29-June 19 elections. "I am happy but my happiness is mixed with sadness," said a tearful Joumana Tabbara, a housewife celebrating the results of Sunday's polling outside Hariri's villa. "I stood in this spot five years ago when his father won the last election. We were so happy then. This time our happiness is incomplete because someone very dear is missing." Hariri's assassination is now the subject of a U.N. investigation. Damascus has denied any hand in it. |
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