- Title: LEBANON: GOVERNMENT WINS CONFIDENCE VOTE, CALLS FOR ELECTIONS.
- Date: 28th April 2005
- Summary: (W3) BEIRUT, LEBANON (APRIL 27, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. TV/PAN: PARLIAMENT SESSION 0.08 2. MCU (SIDE): PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE NAJIB MIKATI SPEAKING AT PODIUM 0.15 3. MV/CU: HIZBOLLAH MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT (2 SHOTS) 0.24 4. MV: OPPOSITION DEPUTIES STANDING 0.31 5. TV: HIZBOLLAH MPs RAISING HANDS TO GRANT VOTE (2 SHOTS) 0.43 6. CU: CLOSE-UP OF MP SLEIMAN FRANJIEAH VOTING 0.46 7. TV: LATE PRIME MINISTER RAFIK HARIRI'S PARLIAMENTARY BLOCK VOTING 0.51 8. TV/PAN: PAN OF THE PARLIAMENT SESSION; MORE OF DEPUTIES VOTING (2 SHOTS) 1.12 9. TV: MIKATI VOTING 1.22 10. (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) HOUSE SPEAKER NABIH BERRI, ANNOUNCING VOTE RESULTS: "109 votes (yes). 1 no vote. Three abstained." 1.33 11. TV: MPS APPLAUDING 1.36 (BN09) BEIRUT, LEBANON (APRIL 27, 2005) (REUTERS) 12. (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic)HOUSE SPEAKER NABIH BERRI SPEAKING TO REPORTERS, SAYING: "The Liberation and Development Block supports the elections and the date for the elections is May 29. This is final and the Parliament speaker will not accept anything else.The liberation and development block, who has abstained from nominating prime minister Najib Mikati, will grant its vote of confidence to the government based on having the elections start on May 29." 2.23 13. GV/TILT DOWN: EXTERIOR OF PARLIAMENT EXTERIOR 2.28 14. GV/PAN: ARRIVALS (2 SHOTS) 2.45 15. GV/PAN: PRIME MINISTER NAJIB MIKATI ARRIVING 2.48 16. TV: INTERIOR SHOTS OF PARLIAMENT SESSION; MPS SEATED (4 SHOTS) 3.09 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th May 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Reuters ID: LVA8ZDYNPKRLQI8H31UXXDPAY2ZZ
- Story Text: Lebanon's government wins confidence vote and
immediately called for elections to start on May 29.
Lebanon's new government won a confidence vote in
parliament on Wednesday (April 27) and immediately called
elections, the first without a Syrian military presence for
33 years, to start on May 29.
The announcement, a day after Syria pulled its last
soldiers and spies out of Lebanon after 29 years, means
parliamentary polls will be held on time as demanded by the
international community and Lebanon's anti-Syrian
opposition.
The new cabinet, led by wealthy businessman Najib
Mikati, won a ringing 109-1 endorsement from MPs in the
128-member chamber, with three abstentions.
Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa then signed a decree
for elections to begin on May 29, officials said.
Parliament also extended by three weeks its own term, which
expires on May 31.
Some sources said there would be three rounds of voting
-- on May 29, June 5 and June 12. Others said there would
be a fourth on June 19. Lebanon usually holds parliamentary
polls staggered over several weekends as regions vote in
turn.
The election decree will be published on Thursday, the
sources said.
"The Liberation and Development Block supports the
elections and the date for the elections is May 29. This is
final and the Parliament speaker will not accept anything
else.The liberation and development block, who has
abstained from nominating prime minister Najib Mikati,
will grant its vote of confidence to the government based
on having the elections start on May 29," Parliament
Speaker Nabih Berri told reporters before the vote of
confidence.
Political sources said Berri had reached agreement on
the election late on Tuesday with the Shi'ite Muslim
Hizbollah group, Druze opposition leader Walid Jumblatt and
the parliamentary bloc loyal to slain former Prime Minister
Rafik al-Hariri, a Sunni Muslim.
The four political forces, which together dominate the
chamber, agreed on the timing and on the law organising the
poll. The sources said the election would follow the same
rules as the last one in 2000, because there was no time to
draft a new electoral law in the current parliament
session.
The elections had been threatened with delay by the
Feb. 14 killing of Hariri, which threw Lebanon into its
worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war and
galvanised local and international opposition to Syria's
29-year military presence.
The Lebanese opposition had accused Syrian-backed
officials of trying to delay the polls, which they expect
to give them a majority in the house now dominated by
Damascus's allies.
Syrian forces entered Lebanon in 1976 and the last
Syrian soldier left the country on Tuesday. The last
Lebanese election held without Syrian forces in the country
was in 1972.
Syria dominated Lebanon after the civil war, incurring
little serious international opposition until a U.N.
Security Council resolution in September demanded it
withdraw.
The outcry over Hariri's assassination prompted Syria
to announce plans to withdraw its remaining 14,000 troops
in Lebanon. The pullout took about seven weeks to complete.
Diplomats in New York said on Tuesday the United
Nations was still looking for someone to lead an
international investigation into Hariri's killing, blamed
by many Lebanese on Damascus.
The U.N. Security Council on April 7 ordered an outside
inquiry after a U.N. fact-finding mission concluded that
Lebanon's own probe into the killing was seriously flawed.
Some 50 people, including administrative and security
staff, are expected to participate in the international
investigation.
A small U.N. team was expected in Beirut to work with
Lebanese authorities in preparing the larger mission.
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