From: ayman@eecs.umich.edu (Ayman I. Kayssi)
Subject: Election news
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 13:47:46 EDT
Organization: The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

[ Article crossposted without permission ]
[ Author was DALAL SAOUD ]
[ Posted on Wed, 26 Aug 92 9:40:43 PDT ]

	BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) -- Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, the
nation's Christian leader, called Wednesday for suspending Lebanon's
first general elections in 20 years because of fraud.
	Sfeir's call came few hours after the Cabinet affirmed that it would
go ahead with the remaining stages of the elections, prompting George
Saadeh, leader of the mainstream Christian Phalange Party, to step down.
	Phalange Secretary-General Karim Pakradouni affirmed that Saadeh
submitted his resignation orally to the Cabinet during Wednesday's
session and will announce it officially within 24 hours.
	Foreign Minister Fares Boueiz has also threatened to resign if the
contacts with the government failed to result in postponing the polls
for at least three weeks.
	Information Minister Michel Samaha said there was no reason to
postpone the second phase scheduled in Beirut and Mount Lebanon on Aug.
23 and the third phase in southern Lebanon on Sept. 6. He said there was
no proof of fraud.
	Patriarch Sfeir, in an interview with United Press International at
the Patriarchate Seat in Bkirki north of Beirut, warned the Government
against going ahead with the polls, saying ``this is not the way to
resolve the problem.''
	Sfeir said a rapprochement between the government and Christian
groups boycotting the elections was still possible if ``genuine and
trustworthy elections are organized.''
	``There is no other solution but to prepare good elections as
provided in the Taif accords,'' he said, referring to the Lebanese peace
pact that ended 16 years of bloody civil war.
	``In this context, all displaced people should return to their
villages, immigrants should be allowed to take part in the polls and
resolve the acute economic crisis,'' he said.
	Asked if the controversy over the elections would lead to a new round
of violence in the country, Sfeir said ``the cannons have been silenced
and no one wishes a new military confrontation. But the prevailing
situation is much more difficult than during war time.''
	Sfeir appealed to the international community to help Lebanon secure
the withdrawal of all foreign troops from its territory.
	Some 35,000 Syrian troops patrol two-thirds of the country while
Israel controls a so-called ``security zone,'' a strip of land that
stretches 9 miles inside Lebanon.
	The Christian camp, led by Sfeir, boycotted the polls on the ground
that Syria's military presence in the country might favor pro-Syrian
candidates.
	Sunday's elections saw the surprise victory of the pro-Iranian
Hezbollah and the defeat of House Speaker Hussein Husseini's candidates
as well as Roy Hrawi, son of President Elias Hrawi.
	On Monday, Husseini, who ran in eastern Lebanon against Hezbollah,
resigned charging that fraud and irregularities took place during
Sunday's elections.

--
Ayman I. Kayssi                               |    ayman@eecs.umich.edu
EECS Department                               +------------------------
University of Michigan                        |          (313) 764-8033
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon