Comrade nathan
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ISN SECURITY WATCH (07/06/05) - A joint electoral ticket of the Hizbollah and Amal Shi’ite parties won all 17 parliamentary seats in Sunday’s elections in largely Shi’ite Muslim southern Lebanon, a Lebanese officials announced on Monday.
The Hizbollah faction in Lebanon’s parliament will increase from four to five legislators. In accordance with the country’s complex religious composition, the Resistance and Development ticket comprised six Christian candidates of various confessions, one Druze candidate, and three Sunni Muslims.
Analysts said the substantial voter turnout - around 45 per cent – showed that the majority of southern Lebanon’s voters still supported Hizbollah’s firm stance against its own disarmament.
The vote for Hizbollah is also seen as a reaction to international interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
Earlier this year, a US-led diplomatic initiative sought the full implementation of UN Resolution 1559, which demands the disarmament of all militias involved in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war.
Hizbollah - a pro-Syrian party credited with forcing Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon in May 2000 - was allowed to keep its arms thanks to Damascus’ support. However, its unique status has come under renewed attack since the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in April.
On Sunday, the pro-Syrian Resistance and Development list won 80 per cent of the votes, soundly defeating its opponents, a mixed bag of communists and independents.
An anti-Syrian coalition, headed by Saad al-Hariri, the son of Lebanon’s slain former prime minister Rafik Hariri, swept Beirut’s poll in the first phase of the four-round elections on 29 May.
Despite their diverging positions on Syria’s role in Lebanon, the Hizbollah-Amal joint ticket and Saad al-Hariri’s mainly Sunni coalition are allied in a substantial number of key constituencies across the country.
Sunday’s electoral success is expected to further strengthen Hizbollah’s political role and temporarily delay the disarmament issue.
Earlier this month, Hizbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah had vowed to keep the militia’s arsenal of 12,000 rockets as a deterrent against Israeli attacks. The Shi’ite militant outfit is thought to rely on 1,500 fighters who are available for reactivation at short notice, mainly in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
The third round of Lebanese elections is scheduled for 12 June in the Bekaa Valley, with the fourth round set to take place on 19 June in the country’s north.
While the results for mainly Sunni Beirut and largely Shi’ite southern Lebanon were predictable, close results are expected to be called in the forthcoming rounds in Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, where opposing Christian factions are struggling for control over a limited number of constituencies.
The run-up to Sunday’s electoral round was marred by the murder of prominent anti-Syrian columnist Samir Qasir last Thursday. The anti-Syrian opposition has blamed the killing on remnants of the Syrian-Lebanese Security Services still operating in the country. Following Qasir’s murder, the opposition requested the immediate resignation of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.
In a separate development, Syrian Vice-President Abdul Alim Khaddam, a Ba’ath Party heavyweight, announced his resignation on Tuesday during the party’s conference in Damascus.
Khaddam, a Ba’athist hard-liner close to late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, is known as one of the key architects of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Dubbed Lebanon's High Commissioner, Khaddam’s fortunes have been declining since the ascension to power of Bashir al-Assad.
The Ba’ath Party gave no reasons for Khaddam's sudden resignation, but analysts said the vice-president’s role had been strongly diminished after the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in April.
(By Claudio Franco in Beirut)
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=11431
The Hizbollah faction in Lebanon’s parliament will increase from four to five legislators. In accordance with the country’s complex religious composition, the Resistance and Development ticket comprised six Christian candidates of various confessions, one Druze candidate, and three Sunni Muslims.
Analysts said the substantial voter turnout - around 45 per cent – showed that the majority of southern Lebanon’s voters still supported Hizbollah’s firm stance against its own disarmament.
The vote for Hizbollah is also seen as a reaction to international interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
Earlier this year, a US-led diplomatic initiative sought the full implementation of UN Resolution 1559, which demands the disarmament of all militias involved in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war.
Hizbollah - a pro-Syrian party credited with forcing Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon in May 2000 - was allowed to keep its arms thanks to Damascus’ support. However, its unique status has come under renewed attack since the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in April.
On Sunday, the pro-Syrian Resistance and Development list won 80 per cent of the votes, soundly defeating its opponents, a mixed bag of communists and independents.
An anti-Syrian coalition, headed by Saad al-Hariri, the son of Lebanon’s slain former prime minister Rafik Hariri, swept Beirut’s poll in the first phase of the four-round elections on 29 May.
Despite their diverging positions on Syria’s role in Lebanon, the Hizbollah-Amal joint ticket and Saad al-Hariri’s mainly Sunni coalition are allied in a substantial number of key constituencies across the country.
Sunday’s electoral success is expected to further strengthen Hizbollah’s political role and temporarily delay the disarmament issue.
Earlier this month, Hizbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah had vowed to keep the militia’s arsenal of 12,000 rockets as a deterrent against Israeli attacks. The Shi’ite militant outfit is thought to rely on 1,500 fighters who are available for reactivation at short notice, mainly in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
The third round of Lebanese elections is scheduled for 12 June in the Bekaa Valley, with the fourth round set to take place on 19 June in the country’s north.
While the results for mainly Sunni Beirut and largely Shi’ite southern Lebanon were predictable, close results are expected to be called in the forthcoming rounds in Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, where opposing Christian factions are struggling for control over a limited number of constituencies.
The run-up to Sunday’s electoral round was marred by the murder of prominent anti-Syrian columnist Samir Qasir last Thursday. The anti-Syrian opposition has blamed the killing on remnants of the Syrian-Lebanese Security Services still operating in the country. Following Qasir’s murder, the opposition requested the immediate resignation of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.
In a separate development, Syrian Vice-President Abdul Alim Khaddam, a Ba’ath Party heavyweight, announced his resignation on Tuesday during the party’s conference in Damascus.
Khaddam, a Ba’athist hard-liner close to late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, is known as one of the key architects of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Dubbed Lebanon's High Commissioner, Khaddam’s fortunes have been declining since the ascension to power of Bashir al-Assad.
The Ba’ath Party gave no reasons for Khaddam's sudden resignation, but analysts said the vice-president’s role had been strongly diminished after the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in April.
(By Claudio Franco in Beirut)
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=11431
