Hezbollah Extremists Lose Lebanon Vote

Militants Fail To Erode Pro-Western Bloc's Majority In Parliamentary Elections, But Questions Of Gridlock Remain

(AP)  Last Updated: 7:21 a.m. ET.

Final election results released by the Lebanese government show that pro-Western factions defeated Hezbollah and its allies in the tight race and will retain a majority in parliament.

The election was an early test of President Barack Obama's efforts to forge Middle East peace. A win by the militant Hezbollah group and its allies would have boosted the influence of its backers Iran and Syria and risked pushing one of the region's most unsettled countries into international isolation - and possibly into more conflict with Israel.

Interior Minister Ziad Baroud read the returns from all 26 districts Monday. His count had the pro-Western bloc winning 68 seats of the 128-member legislature in Sunday's balloting and the Hezbollah-led alliance 57 seats. Three seats went to independents.

Even before the results were officially announced, the winners celebrated by setting off fireworks and driving around in honking motorcades.

"I present this victory to Lebanon," Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said on television after stations projected his pro-Western coalition was winning. "It is an exceptional day for democracy in Lebanon."

OTV, the television station of one of Hezbollah's key Christian allies, former army chief Michel Aoun, conceded that the party's candidates who challenged pro-Western competitors in several Christian districts had been defeated, preventing a victory for the Hezbollah-led coalition.

The leader of the largest bloc in the pro-Western coalition, Saad Hariri, said early Monday in a televised speech that he extends his hand to the losing side.

President Michel Suleiman set the political tone for the post-election period when he expressed hope for a national unity government, a prospect both sides have already raised.

But despite the conciliatory tone from the winners, the results raise questions about whether Lebanon will be able to avoid the kind of political gridlock and crisis that have buffeted the country for most of the last four years.

Hezbollah had veto power in Saniora's Cabinet for the last year, which it won after provoking the worst street clashes since the 1975-1990 civil war. The pro-Western coalition had vowed not to give Hezbollah and its allies a blocking minority in the new government if they won.

The race for the parliament is the first major Mideast event since President Obama reached out to the Arab and Islamic worlds last week in his speech in Cairo in which he called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims." Mr. Obama challenged Muslims to confront violent extremism across the globe and urged Israel and the Palestinians along with Arab states to find common ground on which to forge peace.

Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, has been one of the staunchest opponents of U.S. policy in the Middle East. It fought the Jewish state in southern Lebanon in 2006 in a devastating war.

The U.S. had warned that it could reconsider aid depending on whether Hezbollah and allies won. The U.S. has given around $1 billion to Lebanon's pro-Western government since 2006.

Israel appeared to be happy with the results.

Lawmaker Tzahi Hanegbi, who heads the parliamentary committee in charge of foreign affairs and defense, said the initial indications from Lebanon were positive. "We can say that after many years in which the leading trend in the Middle East was the clear strengthening of the radical camp, the camp that puts Israel and the U.S. in its crosshairs, then yesterday might have been a reversal of the trend," he told Army Radio.

The battle in Christian districts was the decisive factor. Lebanese generally vote along sectarian and family loyalties, with seats for Sunnis and Shiites in the half-Christian, half-Muslim, 128-member parliament already locked up even before the voting started.

Christians in the pro-Western coalition warned that the heavily armed Hezbollah would bring the influence of Shiite Iran to Lebanon. The Maronite Catholic Church made a last-minute appeal, warning that Lebanon as a state and its Arab identity were threatened, a clear reference to Hezbollah and its Persian backer, Iran.

Sunnis were also driven to vote for the pro-Western coalition to get back at Shiite Hezbollah gunmen for seizing the streets a year ago in Beirut from pro-government supporters.

Turnout nationwide was about 52.3 percent, said the government, an increase over the 2005 figure of 45.8 percent.

[Audacity_of_Deception]

far right extremist we call terrorists - Hezbollah. Not the neo-con misguided right wing extremist lunatics we have here.
Posted by stuart2000

There you go again, WISC. You make it to easy to expose your fake Christianity.

[hamiltongrad]

57 reps for bad guys

[YrSoWrong]

Yes. They are.

[YrSoWrong]

Golly aw shucks who at the cbs blog can tell the difference between a pro-Western republic abroad and their own political fantasies at home? Meow to all.

[king-diamond]

Aww GEEE looks like the Conservative Fundies over there are getting spanked by liberal progressives..

[Audacity_of_Deception]

First friend, you do not need to call other posters here names
posted by briannorwood

Liberals curse at people and call people names on these forums day in and day out. Have you ever taken the time to call them out on it?

[Audacity_of_Deception]

Hezbollah Extremists Lose Lebanon Vote

-A serious blow to the anti-Israel secular progessive extremists who blog on these forums.

[factsearcher]

Interesting!
WHile lebanese are stating in the news that they consider the elections were democratic and even the hezbollah in Lebanon left at that....
Syria is claiming there was fraud!!!
I guess their cheap electoral tricks did not work and know claiming fowl!
How obvious and dirty! the syrians tattle tailed themselves.

[YrSoWrong]

Hezbollah continues to co-opt the cbs blog. That's some consolation for them.

[HolyVoice]

doesn't it make sense to you that whatever party is currently in power across Europe will be swept out just as we have done with the GOP. When economic conditions tank in any democratic country, it is natural for people to invite the opposition in to "fix" things.
Posted by briannorwood at 11:07 AM : Jun 8, 2009

Yes, but a better rationale of events would be that when a political environment becomes saturated with manipulation, falsehoods, and graft--it is natural for circumstances to change and fix these aberrations. It just goes to show that, conservative or liberal, change is necessary to improve the situation when it has been abused by those in power.

[pohd1]

The White House and their spoon feed media are trying to claim Obama's influence in the election in Lebanon. What bull. Obama did not even mention Lebanon in his talk in Cairo. The media is silent on the results of Europe. Rejecting Obama spending plan. Europe is rejecting Socialism and the media is silent if the opposite occurred that would be front page and continual news on cable. Europe is going right while the US is going left or maybe far right in fascism.

[briannorwood]

Hey moron, catch a glimpse of what happened across Europe yesterday? Liberals are licking their electoral wounds because the Europeans have finally figured out that Obama-style socialism is a disaster. --Posted by renojmc

---

First friend, you do not need to call other posters here names. Second, doesn't it make sense to you that whatever party is currently in power across Europe will be swept out just as we have done with the GOP. When economic conditions tank in any democratic country, it is natural for people to invite the opposition in to "fix" things.

[renojmc]

Extremism being voted oout is a good thing.
First the GOP, and now this.
it is shaping up to be a great Century....
Posted by king-diamond at 6:12 AM : Jun 8, 2009
------------

Hey moron, catch a glimpse of what happened across Europe yesterday? Liberals are licking their electoral wounds because the Europeans have finally figured out that Obama-style socialism is a disaster.

[trapbreaking]

On the other hand, NPR has reported that the Hezb'Allah did not want the majority win since a Hezb'Allah controlled Lebanon would give cover to the Israelis to attack again. The Hezb'Allah are STILL in control. - - - Posted by bannednanc

Good, let them do the same in Gaza then Israel won't shell them either.

.

[maistir]

Forcing Syrian troops out of Lebanon was one of the best accomplishments of Bush and the EU. The Syrians and Iranians can still finance Hezbollah, but they cannot muscle the Lebanese as they did in the past. Now Hezbollah and its aggressive leaders need to de-militarize their "party" before the west accepts them as a political movement. If Hezbollah insists on keeping its militia, then we ought to not to appease this group.

[YrSoWrong]

The results might have been different if the cbs bloggers had been there and peacefully voted in favor of one-party theocracy and xenophobic tribalism. As progressives, of course.

[Aldymac]

Proof positive that liberals CAN'T be happy with anything, unless it's, totally, "liberal".

[king-diamond]

Extremism being voted oout is a good thing.
First the GOP, and now this.
it is shaping up to be a great Century....

[tonyb-d-bing]

Again, and again, it's religious thinking and religious pressure that ruins everything.

The sad but true fact is, all religions come from myth, made-up stories, and from ancient men who had delusional dreams, and imposed them onto the people in the form of one brand of religion or other.

It's the Catholic Church that has gotten away with more thievery, plunder of gold and other resources, mass-murder, torture, demonizing women and other heinous crimes against Moslems and Jews, and against innocent indigenous peoples on virtually every continent, for longer than imaginable!
That church and its agents has yet to be tried, yet to be brought to justice, and made to compensate the progeny of its victims throughout most of its shameful history.

In Lebanon, it's currently Hezbollah that has adopted the 'model for mass-murder' against Israelis in the name of God or Allah...
...hardly differing from the Catholic Church's past reasoning to commit mass murder.

Fortunately, some semblance of sanity has prevailed by the Lebanese voters not to allow Hezbollah to dominate Lebanon.