President Emile Lahoud yesterday promised to hold "free and honest" elections, an announcement apparently aimed at easing foreign pressure and appeasing the country's anti-Syrian opposition.
Lahoud's pledge, made during a meeting with a EU delegation, came a day after he named moderate, pro-Syrian Najib Mikati as prime minister.
Lahoud, whose country is coming under increasing US and European pressure to ensure elections are held before the current legislature's mandate expires May 31, stressed he had agreed with Mikati on speeding the formation a new Cabinet to prepare for elections.
"The forthcoming parliamentary elections will be an occasion through which the Lebanese will express their political choices in a free, honest and democratic atmosphere," Lahoud told the EU delegation, according to a statement issued by the president's office.
He affirmed Lebanon's commitment to ensuring neutral, transparent elections and said Beirut would accept "neutral local or foreign groups" to monitor the polls.
Mikati's appointment Friday broke a political deadlock, coming two days after Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami quit following several weeks of failed efforts to form a government.
The elections are crucial for the opposition, which backed Mikati in an effort to end the impasse in forming a government and open the way for elections many believe will break Syria's hold on parliament.
The EU urged Lebanese authorities Saturday to hold "free, fair and transparent elections on schedule ... without any outside interference or meddling."
"The European Union will keep a careful watch on the electoral process and stands ready to provide its assistance," said a statement on behalf the EU presidency after the EU delegation meeting with Lahoud.
US officials have also repeatedly called for "free and fair elections" in the presence of international observers without foreign interference -- a reference to Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon which has held enormous political influence in the country since Syrian troops entered Lebanon in 1976.
Lebanon's opposition groups, long suspicious of Syria's role in influencing the elections, have also demanded international observers to monitor the elections.
Karami's outgoing government has resisted the idea of international observers, arguing that it infringes on Lebanon's sovereignty.
Lahoud said the new Cabinet's priorities will be to steer an electoral bill through parliament and call an election, follow up on the investigation into the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, closely cooperate with an international commission to probe the killing and revive the battered economy.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
LEFT AND RIGHT: Battling anti-incumbent, anticommunist sentiment, Jeanette Jara had a precarious lead over far-right Jose Antonio Kast as they look to the Dec. 14 run Leftist candidate Jeannette Jara and far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast are to go head-to-head in Chile’s presidential runoff after topping Sunday’s first round of voting in an election dominated by fears of violent crime. With 99 percent of the results counted, Jara, a 51-year-old communist running on behalf of an eight-party coalition, won 26.85 percent, compared with 23.93 percent for Kast, the Servel electoral service said. The election was dominated by deep concern over a surge in murders, kidnappings and extortion widely blamed on foreign crime gangs. Kast, 59, has vowed to build walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to
DEATH SENTENCE: The ousted leader said she was willing to attend a fresh trial outside Bangladesh where the ruling would not be a ‘foregone conclusion’ Bangladesh’s fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday called the guilty verdict and death sentence in her crimes against humanity trial “biased and politically motivated.” Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against the student-led uprising that ousted her. She was found guilty and sentenced to death earlier yesterday. “The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,” Hasina said in a statement issued from hiding in India. “They are biased and politically motivated,” she
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
RSS