Opposition Wins Lebanese By-Election

Two by-elections were held in Lebanon yesterday to replace anti-Syrian legislators murdered in the last several months. That sentence rather sums up Lebanon these days: elections and murder. Sunni Muslim Walid Eido died in a Beirut car bomb in June, and Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel was shot in November. Mr. Eido’s successor is pro-government candidate Mohammad Amin Itani, an expected result. Mr. Gemayel’s successor, by about 400 votes is Camille Khoury, of the Free Patriotic Movement led by Michel Aoun, a group that has lined up with Hezbollah lately. Things are getting ever messier in Lebanon.

Mr. Gemayel’s seat is in the Christian heartland of Lebanon, a region called Metn. The race pitted Dr. Khoury against Mr. Gemayel’s father, former president of Lebanon and head of the Phalange Party (modeled after Franco’s Party in Spain by the same name), Amin Gemayel. Even before the voters were done casting ballots, Mr. Gemayel the Elder demanded a rematch in one district, arguing that the irregularities cost him his son’s seat.

The Gemayels and Mr. Aoun are the leading candidates for the Lebanese presidency, a job reserved for one of the Maronite Christian faith (other jobs go to other sects under the country’s carefully arranged constitution). The Gemayels have been fiercely anti-Syrian for decades, as was Mr. Aoun until recently. Then, he struck up an unexpected alliance with pro-Syrian Hezbollah.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora put a brave face on the whole thing saying the by-elections “were a civilized response to political assassination.” However, the results themselves showed just how divided the Christians in Lebanon are. Mr. Gemayel got about 2/3 of the Maronite vote, yet Mr. Aoun claims to be backed by 70% of Lebanon’s Maronites. It appears the Armenian Christians’ 8,000 votes made them king makers as they almost all went to Dr. Khoury. And that means there is no clear winner at all.

Former Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss, a Sunni elder statesman, told the BBC, “The Metn election ended politically without a victor and a vanquished. If the contest was a contest of sizes, then both competitors were effectively down-sized. The dent in General Aoun’s popularity is perhaps due to the Christian dismay at the accord he forged with Hezbollah in 2006. But this is small comfort to Gemayel who suffered in his own backyard.” Just what the country doesn’t need, further division based on disillusionment.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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