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Hariri's son sweeps Lebanese elections

Saad, right, and Nazek Hariri, left, the son and the widow of slain former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, celebrate after Saad's list won nine of the 19 seats up for grabs in Beirut parliamentary elections on Sunday. PHOTO: AFP

Saad Hariri, the son of slain former prime minister Rafik Hariri, swept parliamentary elections in Lebanon's capital, according to official results announced yesterday for the country's first elections held largely free of Syrian domination.

Riding a sympathy vote, candidates led by Hariri won all 19 seats in the Beirut polls. The election is seen as a tribute to the leader whose February assassination triggered international anger and street protests that ultimately drove the Syrian army out of Lebanon.

Interior Minister Hassan Sabei, announcing the official results at a news conference, said all 10 contested seats were won by Hariri and allies. The remaining nine seats already had been won by candidates on Hariri's ticket before the election because there were no challengers.

Hariri was the biggest vote-getter, collecting 39,499 votes -- five times the distant loser in one constituency. But turnout was low, at about 27 percent of the 473,652 eligible voters, compared with 35 percent in the 2000 parliamentary elections.

The weak turnout reflected public dissatisfaction amid calls for a boycott, complaints that the ticket of Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, lacked representation of political factions, and the lack of challengers in some constituencies. Television stations reported the boycott was strong in Christian areas.

Hariri and his allies had begun celebrating even before the official results were announced, after incomplete results indicated victory.

Hundreds of Hariri supporters danced and cheered outside the family's palatial residence in Beirut's Koreitem neighborhood on Sunday night as returns tallied by his campaign showed the Hariri slate winning Beirut's 10 contested seats. Fireworks lit the night sky as the Hariri family went to the grave of the slain leader late on Sunday to pray.

Sunday's vote, which Sabei called "trouble-free," was the first stage of a four-part election. Other regions of Lebanon vote on the next three Sundays.

But there was one minor incident, when fistfights broke out late Sunday between supporters of opposition leader Walid Jumblatt, a Hariri ally, and Najah Wakim, who lost on Sunday. The two sides threw bottles and rocks at each other before police intervened and restored calm, witnesses said.

Many observers expect the polls, the first free of Syrian meddling in 29 years, to sweep the anti-Syrian opposition to power and install a new parliament, removing the last vestiges of Damascus' control.

The vote was watched closely by the US and other outside governments that pushed for a Syrian troop withdrawal and on-time elections, despite an election law widely described as unfair.

Syrian forces withdrew last month after mass demonstrations in Lebanon and relentless international pressure sparked by the February assassination of the former premier. The bombing also killed 20 others. Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the UN chief was encouraged by the democratic conduct of the first round of Lebanese parliamentary elections and hoped the remaining rounds would take place in the same peaceful atmosphere.

"These elections constitute a major opportunity for the Lebanese people to shape their own future, to strengthen their political institutions and to restore their full sovereignty," Annan said in a statement.

More than 100 observers watched the vote for irregularities, the first time Lebanon has permitted foreign scrutiny.

"I see it as a potential for a new start," said US Senator Joseph Biden, who came to watch the balloting.

The Democrat acknowledged that the new parliament may not be fundamentally different from the previous one, but said the atmosphere had improved because "there's an occupying force that's gone."
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