Lebanese elections

Official results released a day after Lebanon's hotly-contested parliamentary election have confirmed the pro-Western coalition has held on to its majority. Interior Minister Ziad Baroud confirmed the 14 March coalition of Saad Hariri had won 71 seats in the 128-member body, one more than four years ago.

Hassan Nasrallah, head of militant movement Hezbollah, said he accepted the outcome. "I would like to congratulate all those who won, those in the majority and those in the opposition," he said. Hezbollah-led bloc won 58 seats.

The turnout was 54%, Mr Baroud said, the highest percentage among Lebanon's three million voters since the 1975-91 civil war. Lebanon is a country of deeply-fragmented religious sects, and this election broadly pitted Shia Muslim supporters of Hezbollah against Sunni Muslims and Druze supporting the 14 March coalition.

The crucial electoral showdown had been between Christian rivals, who although they make up only one-third of the population are constitutionally guaranteed an equal half share of parliamentary seats. The influential Christian Maronite community was split between established Western-orientated factions and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) of former army chief Michel Aoun, which joined the pro-Syria faction in 2006.
Analysts say another fragile unity government is likely from this result.

bbc

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Solana and Presidency both hail smooth Lebanese elections

The elections in Lebanon are an important step in the democratic evolution of the Middle East, High Representative of the CFSP Javier Solana has said. Both Solana and the EU Presidency issued statements welcoming the peaceful and orderly way in which the parliamentary elections were held on 7 June.

Euromedinfo

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Obama pledges support for new Lebanon government

"The United States will continue to support a sovereign and independent Lebanon, committed to peace, including the full implementation of all United Nations Security Council resolutions," Obama said in a statement following the election victory by a pro-Western coalition against Hezbollah and its allies.

Reuters

Tunisians begin to discuss presidential elections

Months before the October presidential elections, the Tunisian street is already speculating on the winner.

Some politicians and political analysts predict President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali will win, given his long time in office and the resources he can mobilise for his campaign, yet others insist that the elections will provide equal chances so that any of the five candidates can sweep the votes.

"President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali relies on a strong party that has bases across the entire Tunisian soil," said political analyst Salah Ataia, "something that will enable him to launch a strong campaign with known mechanisms that a party in office possesses." It is a fact Ben Ali for which should not be blamed, according to Ataia. "On the other hand, we find divided opposition parties that have wasted the chance to ally and participate with a common agenda. Elections in all countries are the cap of a political and media battle that extends for years. However, in Tunisia, party activities are few and slow."

Khalid Haddad, founder of a website specialising in politics, agreed with Ataia. "There are certain factors that can't be ignored," he said. "The first factor is related to President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, candidate of the ruling party, and his decisive and historical roles in the march of the country, achieving stability and the many gains that have been made. [Though these] hide certain shortcomings in some fields, such as the inequality of distribution of the fruits of national wealth and the slowness of political development in the country, in my opinion, this is a natural in all human experiences."

Khalid Haddad said that the electoral process itself might confuse voters. "There are some people who say that they will run to compete against Ben Ali on an equal footing. I think that this is a sort of manipulation of voters' feelings to deceive them into believing in something that is not currently possible, which is the ability and readiness of the opposition to rule the country."

Magherabia...

Algerian president leaves government unchanged

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika left his government almost unchanged on Monday in a reshuffle following his election to a third consecutive term. Bouteflika, 72, had been urged by some commentators to bring new blood into the government to help tackle challenges that include a lingering al Qaeda insurgency, a fall in oil prices and high unemployment in the North African energy producer.
A statement from Bouteflika's office said Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia would keep his job along with all other members of the cabinet except minister without portfolio Soltani Bouguerra. No replacement was named for Bouguerra who is the leader of a party loyal to Bouteflika.
Under Algerian law, the prime minister and the rest of the government are required to step down after a presidential election. Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil was among those who remained in their posts.
Bouteflika, a veteran of Algeria's war for independence from colonial ruler France, won an April 9 presidential election with 90.24 percent of the vote.He campaigned on a platform of continuity and stability. His supporters credit him with steering Algeria out of a civil conflict in the 1990s that killed 200,000 people, according to estimates from international non-governmental organisations.
Reuters

Mauritania's detained president to be freed

The leaders of Mauritania's recent coup have agreed to free the country's president, who has been under house arrest since the military takeover four months ago, international officials said Sunday.Abda

President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi will be released no later than Dec. 24, a statement by the African Union and the European Union said. The president's unconditional release has been an important demand of the international community, which cut off aid to the West African nation following the coup.

Abdallahi was elected president last year in the country's first free election in more than two decades. On Aug. 6, hours after he fired several high-ranking generals, a military junta declared a coup and placed Abdallahi under house arrest in a government-owned villa. In November, the junta bowed to international pressure and transported Abdallahi to his native village, where they claimed he was no longer under house arrest.

The statement issued by the AU and EU as well, as the Arab League and the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, said Abdallahi's release "will be the first step in answering the requests of the international community." Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf, the man the junta named prime minister, also announced the country will hold a national conference starting Dec. 27 to prepare for the country's next presidential election.

Lebanon elects new president

Lebanon's parliament on Sunday elected army commander General Michel Suleiman as president.

All sides had agreed to back General Suleiman as part of a deal reached in Doha, Qatar. Qatari leadership and the Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa helped the Lebanese political parties develop national reconciliation.

The government and the opposition arrived at a deal on Wednesday after days of talks in Qatar. Under the agreement, the opposition will have the power of veto in a new cabinet of national unity

Lebanon crisis deepens

A sudden flare-up of street violence in Beirut appears to have broken an 18-month political impasse between the Western-backed government and the opposition, led by the militant Shiite Hezbollah.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that the pro-Western government has declared 'war' on his militant group.

This is a turning point. There can be no more cohabitation between the government and the opposition. All trust is gone," says Amal Saad Ghorayeb, a Lebanese political analyst and expert on Hezbollah "The state is going to be the focus of the struggle, symbolically and practically as well."

The showdown was triggered by a dispute over Hezbollah's private telephone network, with the government declaring the network illegal earlier this week.

"The decision is tantamount to a declaration of war ... on the resistance and its weapons in the interest of America and Israel," said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a news conference aired live on television Thursday. "Those who try to arrest us, we will arrest them. Those who shoot at us, we will shoot at them. The hand raised against us, we will cut it off."

The coming days could decide which vision of Lebanon ultimately triumphs – a liberal, Western-friendly, free-market economy and tourist hub catering to wealthy Arabs; or a key component of a regional alliance that seeks to confront Israel and thwart Western influence in the Middle East.

Many analysts predicted that the stalemate would continue for many more months as neither side could afford a confrontation that could lead to civil war.

On Wednesday, Sheikh Rashid Qabbani, the highest Sunni authority in Lebanon, used unusually harsh words to denounce Hezbollah as a "gang of outlaws," warning that Sunnis "have had enough."

Tensions in Lebanon have erupted on the streets before, but each time the rival leaderships have pulled back from the brink. This time, however, both sides appear determined to proceed along their perilous paths. "It's a showdown. No one can back down," says a European diplomat.

Hezbollah's telecom network

It has been known for some time that Hezbollah has installed a private non-commercial fiber-optic land-line telephone network to provide secure communications between its leaders and the cadres. The network is extensive, stretching from Hezbollah's headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut to south Lebanon. Since the summer 2006 war with Israel, the system has spread further into the Bekaa Valley in the east and even into mainly Christian and Druze areas of the Mount Lebanon district, according to Marwan Hamade, the minister of telecommunications and a close ally of Mr. Jumblatt.

On Tuesday, after a marathon cabinet session, the government announced that Hezbollah's private network was "illegal and unconstitutional" and referred the file to the judiciary and the United Nations. The UN Security Cabinet is scheduled to discuss Thursday the latest report on the implementation of Resolution 1559, which includes a clause calling for the dismantling of "all Lebanese and non-Lebanese armed groups," a reference to Hezbollah and militant Palestinian factions.

The government also launched an investigation into the alleged monitoring of Beirut airport and dismissed the head of airport security, who is close to Mr. Berri. Hezbollah reacted angrily to the cabinet decisions.

The showdown hit the streets on Wednesday when a general strike to protest rising prices swiftly turned into a confrontation between supporters of rival factions. Hezbollah has set up barricades on the highway connecting the city center to Beirut airport and vow to remain until the government withdraws its cabinet decisions.

Christian Science Monitor

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Heavy fighting broke out between government supporters and their opponents in northern Lebanon. The heaviest clashes took place in the northern city of Tripoli, where pro-government supporters in the Tebaneh neighborhood exchanged rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine gun fire with opposition followers in Jabal Muhsin.

The fighting in the north intensified in the early hours on Sunday, but the situation calmed down later as Lebanese troops began deploying.

Meanwhile, west Beirut, a Muslim-majority area, has been mostly calm since Hezbollah and its allies seized control of many neighborhoods on Friday from Sunnis loyal to the government. In Bekaa Valley in the east, sporadic clashes took place between the two groups in different towns and villages. The road leading to the main border crossing point with Syria was still closed by pro-government supporters in retaliation for the opposition's closure of the airport road.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora made a key concession to the Hezbollah-led opposition in a speech on Saturday, however, and the army, widely seen as a neutral force in Lebanon, afterward called for Hezbollah gunmen to withdraw from the streets of Beirut and reopen blocked roads. Most Hezbollah fighters complied, leaving just a handful of its armed allies on the streets.

The army offered Hezbollah a compromise, saying the airport security chief would retain his post and recommending that the government reverse the decision on the phone network.

That proposal - quickly embraced by both government leaders and the opposition - sharply underscored the Lebanese Army's role as the one national institution seen as neutral here. Many have feared that the army would fragment along sectarian or political lines, as it did during Lebanon's 15-year civil war.

In this crisis, as in others, the army stood passively by, unwilling to be seen as taking sides, even when street battles were taking place. Still, the army's proposal is likely to enhance the political prospects of its leader, General Michel Suleiman, who appears to be the only man both political camps are willing to accept as Lebanon's next president.

IHT.com

Lebanese assembly fails to pick president

The Lebanese parliament has failed to elect a new president. Speaker Nabih Berri said a two-thirds quorum had not been reached. The opposition boycotted the session.

Deputy parliamentary speaker Farid Makari announced that the session would be postponed to October 23.

Inside the chamber, there was a stark reminder of the realities of Lebanese politics, with large photographs of murdered MPs from the anti-Syrian majority placed on seats. The latest such killing took place just last week.

The pro-Syrian opposition want a deal on a consensus candidate before its deputies will attend. Lebanon is experiencing its worst political crisis since the civil war. Amid fears of further assassinations, thousands of troops and armed police guarded the parliament building.

A successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud must be elected by November 24.

Anti-Syrian MP killed in Beirut car bomb

Antoine Ghanem, 64, a member of the Right-wing Christian Phalange Party, was killed along with eight other people in the attack in a Christian suburb of Beirut.

He was the eighth prominent anti-Syrian figure assassinated since 2005 and the attack came just six days before parliament was scheduled to meet to elect a new president in a deeply divisive vote.

"It is clear, lawmakers from the (anti-Syrian) majority are being liquidated," Ahmed Fatfat, a cabinet minister, said. He blamed the Syrian regime for the assassination, saying: "It is the only regime that does not want presidential elections in Lebanon to be held."

Parliament was due to meet on Tuesday to vote on a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud but rival political leaders have failed to agree on a consensus candidate, raising fears of further turmoil. Ghanem's death reduced the anti-Syrian coalition's majority to 68 members out of the now 127-member house, with numbers set to play a key role in the vote.

“The attack aims at destabilising Lebanon on the eve of Presidential elections,” says EU Presidency, adding that this “should not weaken the Lebanese people’s resolve to take a firm stand against violence. Those responsible for committing this hideous terrorist act must be promptly brought to justice. The Presidency urges all Lebanese parties and all actors in the region to refrain from any activities that would further endanger the political stability of Lebanon.”

Greek conservatives retain power

Despite coming under strong criticism for the way it handled widespread fires in Greece, the centre-right New Democracy party of prime minister Costas Karamanlis won parliamentary elections on Sunday.

"I feel doubly responsible to be more effective and avoid mistakes," Mr Karamanlis told his supporters as the early results suggested his victory, adding he interpreted the poll results as a "clear mandate" to continue reforms, the BBC reported.

His chief opponent in the elections fight, the socialist Pasok leader George Papandreou, admitted defeat. "Pasok fought a battle and lost it," he said.

According to early results, New Democracy received 42 percent and Pasok 38 percent of the vote. The ruling conservatives lost about 13 seats in the country's 300-strong parliament but should get 152 seats which is enough for an absolute majority.

Conservatives win Morocco polls

Morocco's conservative Istiqlal party won the most seats in parliamentary elections, allowing it to form the next government with its current ruling coalition allies, final results released showed.

Istiqlal (Independence), a ruling coalition member, won 52 seats, ahead of the opposition Islamist Justice and Development party (PJD) with 46 seats, the Interior Ministry said.

The final figures showed a record-low turnout of 37 per cent, an apparent snub of a political system whose leaders are widely seen as aloof and out of touch.

Islamist PJD had hoped to take the top spot and a role in the next government. When it became clear the party would only take second place it accused unnamed opponents of buying votes to skew the results.

The right-wing Popular Movement (MP) and centre National Rally of Independents (RNI) won 41 and 39 seats respectively, while the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), Istiqlal's main coalition partner, won 38.

The parliamentary polls were the second of King Mohammed's nine-year reign and saw 33 parties vie with dozens of independents for seats in the 325-member lower house. A complex voting system made it almost impossible for any group to win an outright majority, and whatever the outcome, real power will remain with the king, who is executive head of state, military chief and religious leader.

Istiqlal's Koutla alliance with the USFP and the smaller Progress and Socialism Party (PPS) won a majority of 180 seats, allowing them to stay together and form the next government.

EU Presidency praises Moroccan election process

The EU Presidency has welcomed the manner in which Friday’s parliamentary elections in Morocco took place. In a statement, it praises the government, political parties, civil society and people of Morocco for “their efforts aimed at ensuring the success and transparency of the electoral process.”

The EU also welcomes steps taken to ensure a greater representation of women in parliament and notes the measures taken by Morocco to enable monitoring of the elections as well as the “significant involvement of Moroccan associations in the electoral process.”

“The democratic conditions in which the elections were held is a testament to Morocco’s engagement in the political, economic and social reform process initiated at the highest level of the Moroccan state in recent years,” notes the Presidency.

Electoral campaign begins in Morocco

Some 15 million voters head to the polls Sept. 7 for the North African kingdom's parliamentary elections, in which 325 seats in the lower house are up for grabs. More than 30 parties are expected to take part in the elections, but the opposition Justice and Development Party, or PJD, appeared to have an early lead. Formed in 1998 from several Islamist strands, the PJD rose to prominence in the last parliamentary elections in 2002, winning 42 seats in the outgoing lower house.
A recent survey by the CSA and LMS polling agencies suggests Justice and Development would take 19 percent of the vote, compared to 15 percent for the establishment Istiqlal, or Independence party, and 14 percent for the center-left Socialist Union of Popular Forces, or USFP, which together dominate the current governing coalition. The poll of 1,200 people, which appeared Friday in Almassae newspaper, had a margin of error between 1.7-2.8 percent.

According to the same poll, 69 percent of those surveyed said they planned to vote. In the 2002 race, 52 percent of registered voters cast their ballots. A dozen observers from the Washington D.C.-based National Democratic Institute will be on hand for the upcoming vote.

Morocco's secularist King Mohamed VI, who names the government and still wields ultimate power in the kingdom, has spoken out on the need for electoral transparency and to fight against vote-buying — which overshadowed the 2002 race and has flared up before September's vote.

No clear winner in Lebanon votes

BBC

Lebanon is now facing its biggest political crisis since the end of its long civil war. It is trapped between the forces that look to Syria and those in the government who look West. The US-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the weekend's by-elections "were a civilised response to political assassination".

But in truth they have changed very little. In fact they could even have cemented the divisions. Perhaps the only cause for celebration was the size of the turnout on Sunday. Despite concerns of further violence, people came to vote in their thousands.

The closest battle was in the Christian heartland of Metn - where they voted to replace the murdered MP Pierre Gemayel. Running for the vacant seat was Pierre's father, Amin Gemayel, a leading Christian figure, former president and staunch supporter of the anti-Syria government. The lesser known candidate, Dr Camille Khoury, stood for the opposition party of the other main Christian leader, General Michel Aoun.

In the end Mr Khoury took the seat by just 418 votes out of about 79,000 cast, a margin which many say undermines General's Aoun's leadership.

He had claimed - based on the results of parliamentary elections in 2005 - to enjoy 70% of the Christian vote. But this suggests he has gone backwards.

Gen Aoun is not a "pro-Syrian". In fact as prime minister in the 80s he fought the Syrians. But as a presidential candidate for the crucial upcoming election in September, he is the preferred choice of the pro-Syrian Shia Islamist group Hezbollah, which is allied to Damascus.

Crucially, the presidency is always reserved for the leading Christian Maronite. A closer look at this vote shows it was Amin Gemayel who took two-thirds of the Maronite vote. Victory for Gen Aoun's party, was only guaranteed by the minority Armenian Christians - it seems almost all of their 8,000 votes went with General Aoun's candidate.

It leaves the Christian community bitterly divided - and the future presidency very much in doubt. Both government and opposition will claim to have the Christian vote.

Bleak warning
In the other by-election in West Beirut, to replace Walid Eido, the vote went, as expected, to the Sunni candidate, put forward by the majority leader Saad Hariri.

But all in all, this will have been a disappointing night for the anti-Syrian government. In the past year, they have lost two seats to the assassins and only regained one of them.

The standoff between the anti-Syrian government and pro-Syrian opposition will continue, with little sign of any breakthrough.

Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister who is mediating between the two sides, has already warned that if they cannot find a compromise on many of the issues that divide them Lebanon could soon return to civil war.