DgTvOnline.com

Legislative elections in Lebanon. A race to the 'vote' between the opposition led by Hezbollah and supported by Iran and Syria and the current parliamentary majority westernisers

Today in Lebanon, we vote for the renewal of the parliament, unicameral and elected every 4 years. Parliamentary elections that could mark the end of tensions and violence broken out in 2005 and have invested dragging the country to date. To confront the coalition there are westernisers identifiable as' the forces of March 14, 'and led by Hezbollah and supported by Iran and Syria identifiable as the' forces of "March 8, '. The first, which won the elections of 2005, is nothing but an alliance of Sunni parties, Druze led by Walid Jumblat and the Maronite phalanges of Amin moans ay l, coalition around the figure of Saad Hariri son and political heir of the late Rafiq Hariri and his movement 'al-Mustaqbal', The Future, which brings together the Sunnis. Its name is the evocation of the date on which, after the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri occurred in February of that year, mass demonstrations in Beirut to bring to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country after 29 years of ' protection 'political-military.

Lebanese soldiers patrol the streets while we vote

Instead the coalition known as the 'Strength of 8 March', today the opposition is led by Hezbollah, in turn, recalls the date of another demonstration in Beirut in 2005. It is nothing but a coalition made up of Hezbollah Has an Nasr allah, Amal of the President of the Parliament Nabih Berri, the Free Patriotic aware of the Christian Michel Aoun and Maradi with Christians led by Suleiman Among njieh. The winner of this round of elections will elect the new premier and form a new government, this choice, however, that in the past has often resulted in instability and violence in the country. A possible victory of the pro-Syrian threatens to plunge Lebanon into a state of international isolation. Chhiaro therefore is that the results of the vote will not only impact on the internal political situation of Lebanon, but will also have significance in defining the dynamics regionali.Con today's vote different entity to a Lebanese confessional divide powers in a Lebanon where the president is Maronite, the prime minister is Sunni, and the chairman of the Parliament is Shiite.

on the elections in Lebanon in 2009 to ensure international observers

That divided parliament where, by law, its 128 seats in proportion between the different confessions. For the Christian community, 34 are Maronites, 14 of the greek-orthodox, 8 of Catholics, 6 of the Armenians and 2 other minorities. Of seats of the Muslim community, 27 are of equal number of Shiite and Sunni, Druze and 8 of Schedule 2 of the `Alawis. Then vote for the complicated electoral law in Lebanon, the country divided into 26 districts. Date back to 2005, the last parliamentary elections in the country. At that time, the current parliamentary majority managed to win 72 seats in parliament while the opposition consists of the 'forces of 8 March they won 35 and the blocking of Christian General Michel Aoun instead it got 21. 4 Since then, politicians of the 'Forces of March 14,' were in fact murdered by reducing to 68 the seats controlled by the coalition westernisers. In February of 2006 onwards, before the conflict broke out between the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and Israel, the 'March 8 Forces' and the Aoun bloc of allies were in fact constitute a mixed group of strong opposition by 56 seats. To make a difference will be the votes of Christians. The real clash is between the candidates loyal to Michel Aoun, an ally of Hezbollah, and those loyal to his rival Samir Geagea and Amin Gemayel, members of the coalition now in majority in parl catkin. On the regularity of the voting shall see about 200 international observers. Particularly those of the EU observer mission led by Jose Ignacio Salafranca and 'Jimmy Carter Center' founded the American president.

Jimmy Carter head the international observers in Lebanon

On the eve of the vote the same Carter has said that it had no concerns on the conduct of the elections, but feared that acceptance or otherwise of the results by some political components of the country. To ensure safety throughout the country have been deployed and some armored means 50 thousand soldiers and policemen who patrol the streets and stop in front of 1753 seats, opened in 26 districts to enable some 3.2 million Lebanese to vote. There has been a massive turnout. It should be abundantly exceed 50 percent. The results of the vote should be announced tomorrow.

Ferdinando Pelliccia

Trackback URI | Comments RSS