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06-05-2005, 02:47 PM
Syria's allies head to victory in Lebanon poll (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1416999/posts)
Reuters / Yahoo ^ (http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8698345) | 6/5/2005 | Kamel Jaber
Syrian Allies Set To Win Vote
HOULA, Lebanon (Reuters) - Syria's staunchest allies Hizbollah and Amal were set to sweep south Lebanon's polls on Sunday in the first general elections since Syrian troops quit the country.
Many in the Shi'ite Muslim heartland see a vote for Hizbollah as a vote for retaining the group's arms as resistance against neighboring Israel which occupied the south for 22 years.
Lebanon's elections are being held by region over four weeks.
"I am going to vote for Hizbollah because they liberated the south. We owe them our blood," said Zeinab Yasin in Houla, among the first towns to be abandoned by Israeli troops in 2000.
Hizbollah, which Washington labels a terrorist group, and the more moderate Amal are the dominant forces among the Shi'ites, Lebanon's largest sect.
Voting got off to a slow start as the Amal-Hizbollah alliance, dubbed the "steamroller," had already won six of the 23 seats in the south by default, due to a lack of challengers.
Local media, quoting Interior Ministry sources, said turnout among the 675,000 eligible voters was 38 percent an hour before polls closed at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT). Results are expected on Monday.
Damascus backed both Amal and Hizbollah during and after the 1975-1990 civil war, and Shi'ites largely stayed away from anti-Syrian street protests that swept Beirut after the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
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Reuters / Yahoo ^ (http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8698345) | 6/5/2005 | Kamel Jaber
Syrian Allies Set To Win Vote
HOULA, Lebanon (Reuters) - Syria's staunchest allies Hizbollah and Amal were set to sweep south Lebanon's polls on Sunday in the first general elections since Syrian troops quit the country.
Many in the Shi'ite Muslim heartland see a vote for Hizbollah as a vote for retaining the group's arms as resistance against neighboring Israel which occupied the south for 22 years.
Lebanon's elections are being held by region over four weeks.
"I am going to vote for Hizbollah because they liberated the south. We owe them our blood," said Zeinab Yasin in Houla, among the first towns to be abandoned by Israeli troops in 2000.
Hizbollah, which Washington labels a terrorist group, and the more moderate Amal are the dominant forces among the Shi'ites, Lebanon's largest sect.
Voting got off to a slow start as the Amal-Hizbollah alliance, dubbed the "steamroller," had already won six of the 23 seats in the south by default, due to a lack of challengers.
Local media, quoting Interior Ministry sources, said turnout among the 675,000 eligible voters was 38 percent an hour before polls closed at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT). Results are expected on Monday.
Damascus backed both Amal and Hizbollah during and after the 1975-1990 civil war, and Shi'ites largely stayed away from anti-Syrian street protests that swept Beirut after the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST