Last modification: 08/06/09
 -  Christians - Hezbollah - Lebanese elections - Lebanon - Michel Aoun - Saad Hariri - shiite - Sunni
 
Lebanon's high-stakes election
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On June 7, Lebanese citizens went to the polls to elect their parliamentary representatives in a high stakes election with far-reaching domestic and international geopolitical implications.

The US- and Saudi-backed March 14 coalition, led by Saad Hariri, son of slain former premier Rafiq Hariri, defeated a Hezbollah-led alliance, supported by Syria and Iran, in a high-stakes Lebanese parliamentary election, final results show.

 

The pro-Western bloc – made up of Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian parties – took 71 seats in the country’s 128-seat parliament, against 57 for the coalition led by Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

 

The results come as a surprise after polls had given a slight edge to Hezbollah and its unlikely coalition ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party led by Gen. Michel Aoun.

 

While Hezbollah retained its share of the vote in predominantly Shiite areas, many Christian voters appear to have deserted Gen. Aoun, whose party has already announced it would work toward forming a national unity government.

 

Hariri, who is widely tipped to lead the new government, now faces an uphill battle attempting to unite a country torn by sectarian strife and still reeling from a bloody civil war between 1975 and 1990.

 

The election in Lebanon, a country of just 4.1 million inhabitants, had been cast as a show-down between US and Iranian policies in the Middle East.

 

The prospect of victory for Hezbollah and its allies had caused anxiety in the West.

 

The March 14 alliance, which enjoys the generous backing of Saudi Arabia and the West, was swept to power in 2005 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut. Outrage at the killing also forced the withdrawal of neighbour Syria, who had occupied Lebanon and dominated the country's politics for years.
 

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