By-election loss weakens Lebanese govt
Monday, 06 Aug 2007 15:07
Lebanon has a complex political system in which seats are divided on the basis of religion
Lebanese politics faces the prospect of further division after a government-backed Christian candidate was defeated in yesterday's by-election.
The Free Patriotic Movement's (FPM) Camille Khoury beat the Phalange party's Amin Gemayel in Metn, north-east of Beirut, in a move which appears to have split the Christian vote ahead of upcoming presidential elections.
Parliamentary seats are allocated on a religious basis to reflect the country's diverse mix of religions and to ensure stability in a country that has been wracked by civil war.
The seat was vacated after the killing of Amin Gemayel's father Pierre, who previously led the anti-Syria party. The FPM is pro-Syrian, meaning Christians appear deeply divided ahead of forthcoming presidential elections in the country.
Parliament will soon elect a president who must be from the Maronite Christian community.
The second by-election was also held to replace a member of the anti-Syria coalition, Walid Eido, who was killed in a car bomb attack.
The poll, for a Sunni Muslim district in western Beirut, was easily won by Mohammed al-Amin Itani, a member of the ruling coalition's Sunni Future group, after the opposition did not officially sponsor a candidate.
The party is considered a stronghold of the Sunni Future group, whose leader Rafik Hariri's assassination sparked a diplomatic crisis with Syria and resulted in the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
The FPM has accused Syria of orchestrating the assassinations of the two politicians that have resulted in the by-elections being held.
Lebanon was the scene of a bitter civil war between 1975 and 1990 which started as a domestic struggle between religious groups but soon pulled in neighbouring Syria and Israel into a crisis with regional implications.