Minister: 587 candidates to run in Lebanese general election

Apr 23, 2009, 16:50 GMT

Lebanon - Some 587 candidates will be running in Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary election, due to be held on June 7, the country's interior minister said Thursday.

The poll is expected to be hotly contested between the Western- backed ruling coalition of Prime Minister Fouad Seniora, and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said the 587 candidates will be competing for 125 of the 128 seats in the unicameral parliament.

The minister said at a press conference Thursday that three Armenian-Christian candidates have already been elected unopposed in seats in Beirut and a Christian stronghold east of Beirut, after rival candidates withdrew.

The withdrawal of the candidates gave two seats to the opposition, led by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah and one seat for the current ruling majority, ahead of the parliamentary election which is held every four years in the country.

Although no official pre-election polls are conducted in Lebanon, the opposition parties led by Hezbollah are widely seen as standing a good chance of winning a majority in the parliament.

As a result, many observers fear that the coming months will foresee tension in the streets between the rival groups, increasing the division in the country.

According to analyst Shafik al-Masri, a Hezbollah-led victory would shake the region.

'We would be replacing a pro-US government with a government backed by Iran and Syria. This will effect foreign policies towards Lebanon,' he said.

But Masri said that Hezbollah is aware of the challenges if they win, and that they are working to avoid becoming like the Palestinian movement Hamas, which won the legislative elections in 2006 but was boycotted by the US, the EU and other international parties.

The US and the EU officially consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization, and their biggest fear is that, if group and its allies win the election this will increase the influence of Iran and Syria in the country.

A source close to Hezbollah, who requested anonymity, said that the opposition is aware of the fears around the world and inside Lebanon.

'Hezbollah's winning of the election should not scare anyone in Lebanon,' the source said.

'If we win the upcoming election we will rule the country equally with our rivals,' he added.

Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, stressed in a speech last week that if the opposition did take a majority on June 7, it would invite its opponents to join in a national unity government to ensure stability.

'It is in the interest of Lebanon ... that there is understanding and partnership among Lebanese in running the country's affairs,' he said in a televised speech.

According to Lebanon's constitution, the 128 -member legislature must be half-Christian and half-Muslim, with the Christians divided among Orthodox and Catholic parties and Muslims among Shiite, Sunni, Druze and Alawite sects. The president in Lebanon must be a Maronite Christian, the premier a Sunni Muslim and the house speaker a Shiite.