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Monday, May 30,
2005 Posted: 5:49 AM EDT (0949 GMT)
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The opposition bloc
led by a son of assassinated former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri has won a decisive
victory in round one of Lebanon parliamentary
sections.
In the first vote since the withdrawal of
Syrian troops from Lebanese territory,
official results showed the list led by Saad
Hariri won all 19 seats up for grabs in the
capital of
Beirut amid low turnout in the first of four
rounds of balloting.
Announcing the official results at a news
conference on Monday, Interior Minister Hassan
Sabei said Hariri and allies won all 10
contested seats.
Hariri's anti-Syrian bloc had already won nine
of those 19 seats in the 128-member parliament
before the vote because they were not
contested.
Even before official results were in, Hariri's
supporters took to the streets in celebration
Sunday night, cheering the first poll free of
Syrian involvement in 29 years.
Hundreds danced outside the family's palatial
residence in
Beirut's Koreitem neighborhood as fireworks
lit the night sky.
"It's a win for democracy," the 35-year-old
Hariri said.
"It's a win for my father. It's a win for
liberty, for freedom of speech -- for
freedom."
Saad's mother Nazick, who wears her murdered
husband's wedding ring on a chain around her
neck, was among the first to vote Sunday.
She was displaying her family's determination,
she said, to overcome her family's tragedy,
prevail in politics and find her husband's
killers.
No one has been charged in the February car
bombing that killed the elder Hariri, a
businessman-turned-politician who led
Lebanon's pro-Syrian government before
becoming an advocate of Syria's withdrawal.
His death sparked massive protests and renewed
international pressure on
Damascus
to withdraw the nearly 14,000 troops and
intelligence officers it kept in Lebanon -- a
pullout that was completed in April.
"This is the first time that we elect without
the Syrian occupation," candidate Gebran Tueni
said.
"This is the first time the lists are composed
in
Lebanon, not in Damascus."
But pre-election debates exposed a split among
an opposition front that was once united
against
Syria.
Lebanese complained that Hariri's ticket
lacked representation of political factions
and challengers in some constituencies.
"I would have preferred a real campaign with a
debate, discussion, and maybe new faces," one
voter said.
But for now, say western diplomats, this
election that relies on lists of candidates,
is as good as it is likely to get in a process
of transition.
CNN Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler
contributed to this report.
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