LEBANON DECLARES OFFICIAL RESULTS OF BEIRUT BY-ELECTIONS
Ya Libnan, Lebanon
Aug 6 2007
Beirut – Lebanon’s minister of Internal Affairs Hassan Sabaa declared
the official results of the Beirut by-elections. Mohammad Itani, a
member of the al Mustaqbal bloc of parliament majority leader Saad
Hariri was the declared winner.
Here are the final official details :
Mohammad Itani …………………22988 votes
Ibrahim el Halabi ………………3556
Zohair el Khatib ……………….75
Saleh Farroukh …………………3
Maher Aby Khudoud ………………0
Total no. of registered voters …..141025 votes
Total votes ……………………27100
Total discarded votes …………..460
Voter turn out …………………18.90 %
Number of polling stations ………250
LBC has reported that minister of Internal Affairs Hassan Sabaa has
declared the results of the Metn by-elections as follows
Camille Khoury …………………39534 votes.
He is a member of General Aoun’s Free patriotic Movement
Amine Gemayel ………………….39116 votes.
He is the former president and member of March 14 alliance
Last night General Aoun declared victory and claimed that the internal
minister Hassan Sabaa has called him and confirmed that Camille Khoury
is the winner, but soon thereafter Sabaa said that he never called
general Aoun about the election results.
Ya Libnan could not also confirm LBC report nor the number of votes
of each candidate, since the numbers have been disputed. The dispute
is about the polling stations in Burj Hammoud, an Armenian area.
According to election observers, usually the Armenians vote for
the pro government candidate but the ballot count shows about 85 %
of the votes went for Aoun’s candidate.
Amin Gemayel, who has also declared victory last night has called
for investigation of the Burj Hammoud results and for a recount and
possible repeat of the elections in this section of Metn region. This
could be the reason why the ministry of Internal Affairs has not
officially confirmed the final results.
Gemayel said there were reports from that area of people not living
there or deceased casting votes as well as irregularities with
voting cards.
Gemayel said that he would nonetheless accept the official results
expected later during the night.
Aoun’s spokesman Antoine Nasrallah said that Khoury had won by a
close margin of several hundred votes.
"The legend of Michel Aoun as the sole Christian leader has crumbled,"
Walid Jumblatt, a prominent leader of the ruling majority, told LBC
and Almustaqbal television stations.
"Amin Gemayel has won the political battle. Michel Aoun has fallen
politically despite all his alliances," he said.
Ya Libnan will follow up on this and will report the official results
and status of the investigation as soon as we receive more information.
Picture: Supporters of anti-Syrian Christian leader, former Lebanese
president Amin Gemayel, celebrate after claiming victory in the
by-election at the town of Bikfaya, in the Metn area northeast of
Beirut. The opposition has also claimed victory in by-elections on
Sunday that have left the country’s Christians deeply divided ahead
of polls to elect a new president who is traditionally a Christian
in Lebanon.
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