LEBANON: Lebanon beefs up security measures around parliament ahead of session to elect president

Lebanon increases security ahead of presidential elections but vote unlikely as rival leaders fail to agree on identity of a president. Lebanon tightened security around its parliament building in Beirut on Monday (September 24), a day ahead of a session to elect a president which is unlikely to go ahead in the absence of political accord. The cabinet is discussing deploying more armoured troop carriers, fire engines and ambulances to strengthen a cordon around parliament and nearby Serail government headquarters, already sealed off by barbed wire from a tent camp the opposition set up nearly 10 months ago to try to topple Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's U.S.-backed cabinet. But Hezbollah, leading the opposition, has said it would boycott a parliamentary session to prevent the anti-Syrian majority from electing a new president for Lebanon. Tuesday's session, whose original purpose of picking a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, looks doomed to fail. Lahoud leaves office on Nov. 24. Hezbollah's opposition partners, the Shi'ite Hezbollah group Amal and Christian leader Michel Aoun's faction, also plan to stay away, blocking any chance of mustering the two-thirds quorum required to elect a president in the first round of voting. The anti-Syrian ruling coalition has only a narrow majority, which was slimmed further by last week's car bombing that killed Christian MP Antoine Ghanem, the fourth anti-Syrian legislator to be assassinated since the last parliamentary poll in 2005. The presidential contest, the first since Syrian troops left Lebanon in April 2005, has aggravated what was already the country's worst political crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. The government, which fears more attempts to cut its majority by assassination, met to discuss security for the parliament meeting, the first Berri has called this year. Saudi Arabia, whose ties with Syria chilled after the 2005 killing of ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri, a dual Saudi-Lebanese citizen, echoed the government's security worries. Ghanem's killing has delayed plans for Berri to meet Maronite Christian Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir and majority bloc leader Saad al-Hariri to seek a compromise before the session. Berri now plans to wait in his office at parliament until it is clear that not enough MPs have shown up for a presidential vote. He may then postpone the session until mid-October to give more time for agreement on a candidate acceptable to both camps. But Berri said he is optimistic that Lebanese will eventually sort out their differences and agree on a president. "I would like the Lebanese to be rest assured that things look optimistic. It was never as pessimistic as it may have seemed. Of course, the tragic killing of MP Antoine Ghanem was a setback but it should be more reason for the Lebanese to stand together and try to find a resolution for the crisis," said Berri, after a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, the Maronites' most revered spiritual leader. Hezbollah said that with no consensus it was natural that opposition deputies would stay away to deprive the majority of any chance to elect one of its own. The president must be a Maronite under Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system. Several anti-Syrian candidates are running against Aoun. Army chief Michel Suleiman and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh are seen as possible compromise choices.

ITN Source | September 25, 2007

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