- Title: LEBANON: POLITICS - Contenders in last ditch stab to win Lebanon vote
- Date: 7th June 2009
- Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (JUNE 05, 2009) (REUTERS) FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER ARRIVING AT INTERIOR MINISTRY CARTER MEETING INTERIOR MINISTER ZIAD BAROUD CLOSE OF CARTER VARIOUS OF MEETING MEMBERS OF CARTER DELEGATION BAROUD HOLDING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LEBANESE INTERIOR MINISTER ZIAD BAROUD SAYING: "I reject the insinuation that Sunday (election day
- Embargoed: 22nd June 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Lebanon
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA5FBKOF89Q8LR1PH2M0N7FMWV6
- Story Text: Lebanese candidates canvassed feverishly for votes on Friday (June 5), the last day of campaigning before a parliamentary vote in which Shi'ite Hezbollah and its allies hope to reverse the anti-Syrian coalition's majority.
Across Lebanon candidates met voters in their constituencies in last-minute efforts to sway them before Sunday's election.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah, whose allies include Christian leader Michel Aoun, is competing with an anti-Syrian bloc backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia which won a 2005 election.
Analysts expect a very tight race with no camp securing a comfortable victory. The most likely outcome will be a national unity government, similar to the current one, they say.
Lebanon has witnessed a period of calm in the run-up to the election. The country had reached boiling point last year when political and Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian tensions brought Lebanon to the brink of civil war.
More than 100 people were killed in sectarian violence before an agreement led to the election of President Michel Suleiman and the formation of a national unity government.
Despite fears of violent incidents on election day, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said he expected the vote to go smoothly.
"I reject the insinuation that Sunday (election day) will be a day of problems. We have to work together to make Sunday a day of happiness, where each person will go to their voting station. And the Lebanese state is trying its best on all levels so that all the citizens feel equal. Behind the curtain, every person will choose whomever they want and the results will come out and those who win win, and those who lose will try again next time," he said.
Lebanese security forces will deploy 50,000 men across the country of 4 million people to maintain security on Sunday (June 7). Around 200 international observers will be monitoring the vote.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Centre has provided Lebanon with 50 observers monitoring the election, said he expected the U.S. to accept the poll's outcome.
"I think it's very important for any foreign nation also to join in the Lebanese people's acceptance of the results of the election. This is not a place for Saudi Arabia or for the United States or for the European Union or for Iran or anyone else to interfere," he told a news conference in Beirut.
The United States has said it will review its aid to Lebanon in light of the next government's composition and policies, but analysts in Washington discounted the chance of a complete halt to U.S. military funding if Hezbollah and its allies win.
Some suggested a cut-off in military aid totalling $500 million since 2005 was not in either side's interest given U.S. overtures to Hezbollah's two main supporters, Syria and Iran, and the likely reluctance of Hezbollah and its allies to isolate Lebanon from the West.
A recent rapprochement between regional rivals Syria and Saudi Arabia has also helped defuse tensions. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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