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By Adnan El-Ghoul
Daily Star staff
Thursday, June 09, 2005
On the campaign trail
BEIRUT: The electoral race on the northern
frontier reached its peak with Saad Hariri
making a dramatic drive through the
traditional strongholds of veteran politicians
in Akkar and Dinnieh, and fulfilling his
father's dream, blocked for so long by the
Syrian intelligence services.
Hariri's Future Movement chose to introduce
new faces to the second electoral district,
unknown to local inhabitants, through a
program that hopes to "embark on the
development of Akkar," an area long deprived
of basic growth essentials.
Former Deputy Premier Issam Fares was the only
politician who mixed politics with
socio-economic issues and so was able to
assume a role similar to that played by slain
former Premier Rafik Hariri.
Fares is not running, but the theme of "growth
and development," could prove productive in an
election campaign.
The only risk facing Hariri junior is that the
people in these districts are deeply rooted in
tradition, and one could speculate on whether
the voters will shy away from their
traditional leaders or not.
Tripoli MP, Jean Obeid, a political veteran
and steadfast supporter of the late Hariri, is
not included in the Future Movement's list in
Tripoli.
Having once declared he would step aside if
had to beg for his candidacy, Obeid ended up
trying to ally with General Michel Aoun and
Suleiman Franjieh but failed to get anywhere
and quarreled with the latter over
particularities.
Obeid has announced his withdrawal and
promised to explain his reasons in a news
conference next Saturday.
The Franjieh-Aoun alliance is not as strong as
they had hoped it would be, mainly because
time is running out and their adversaries had
prepared well in advance; but the partnership
is likely to survive the elections regardless
of the results, and could prove an effective
opposition in the future.
Meanwhile, the electoral battle in Mount
Lebanon runs mostly between the different
opposition parties, particularly amongst the
Christian factions that plan to form yet
another list in addition to existing complete
and partial lists formed by Aoun, former
president Amine Gemayel, Carlos Edde and
Michel Murr.
Hizbullah's strong endorsement for the list
supported by Walid Jumblatt in Baabda-Aley
district was not good news for Aoun's list,
which will be fighting an uphill battle for
survival in Sunday's vote, a make-or-break
moment for Aoun and the FPM allies.
Aoun is now standing alone, at odds with
"natural allies" after splitting altogether
from the opposition and accusing
Lebanon's
"entire political class of corruption."
The FPM depended largely on this "populist"
policy forgetting that the issues at hand run
in a very differ-ent direction.
Many of the country's politicians have made
"national reconciliation" a key electoral
theme, while Aoun is gathering new foes and
adversaries from all directions.
Some Aoun sympathizers say "building a state
cannot be based on corruption," but the good
politician has to set priorities first.
Meanwhile, Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah is making big advances by
promoting national unity and reconciliation.
Aoun should take a leaf out of Nasrallah's
book and check to see if he is also included
in these calls; it may be too late to get the
message now but learning is never too late for
the near future.
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