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Downtown Beirut sealed off
25/09/2007 12:04 - (SA)
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| A soldier stand guards in front of the Lebanese Parliament building in downtown Beirut. (Hussein Malla, AP) |
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Beirut - Police and army troops sealed off downtown Beirut on Tuesday and escorted lawmakers to parliament where they were to elect a new president in a vote shadowed by the assassination of a legislator and expected to be blocked by the Hezbollah-led opposition.
The security dragnet by several thousand soldiers and policemen was aimed at allowing anti-Syrian lawmakers from the parliamentary majority to move safely from a nearby heavily guarded hotel where they had taken refuge fearing assassination.
Fears of an attack were high after the slaying on Wednesday of pro-government lawmaker Antoine Ghanem. It fuelled accusations by government supporters that Syria is targeting members of the ruling coalition, a claim denied by Damascus.
Lawmakers began arriving in vehicles with dark-tinted windows with at least one policeman sitting inside. Several pro-government lawmakers wore white and red scarves on their shoulders - a symbol of the 2005 campaign of protests that drove Syrian forces out of Lebanon in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Some also carried portraits of slain lawmakers including Ghanem.
In the parliament chamber, a Lebanese flag and a portrait of a slain legislator was placed on his seat.
Even without the tensions, the attempt to choose a successor to President Emile Lahoud before he steps down on November 24 is expected to be a struggle between the anti-Syrian government coalition, led by US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, and the opposition, led by Syria's and Iran's ally Hezbollah, the Shi'ite Muslim militant group.
Vote unlikely
Despite the tough security measures and attempts at compromise after the assassination, the political differences remained so deep that a vote on a candidate was unlikely on Tuesday and another session was expected to be called for mid-October.
The ruling coalition is eager to install one of its own to replace the pro-Syrian Lahoud, but the opposition has vowed to prevent that from happening.
Eleven declared or undeclared candidates are running for the post, three of them members of the pro-government camp and one from the opposition.
All 68 legislators from the pro-government majority were going to Parliament on Tuesday, said lawmaker Fuad Saad, a supporter of the ruling coalition. But he added the chances of an election on Tuesday were "very faint", saying the gathering on Tuesday would be turned into one for consultations between the two camps.
"We are going to show our wish to apply the constitution, elect a president and to reject a (power) vacuum," Saad told the privately owned Voice of Lebanon radio station on Tuesday.
The opposition - with 57 members - was expected to deny the 128-member legislature a two-thirds quorum by having lawmakers stay away from the building or in their offices rather than joining the session in the chamber. Two legislators have declared they were with neither side on the presidential issue.
Opposition-aligned Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri set 07:30GMT for opening the session. He was in his office and was not expected to declare the session open if it lacked a two-thirds quorum. If not enough lawmakers gather, he will call another session.
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