Pro-Syrian Wins Lebanon Seat

Former president defeated in race for murdered son's seat

By Peter Fearon, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 6, 2007 4:03 AM CDT

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Pro-Syrian Wins Lebanon Seat — Lebanese supporters of Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun gesture as they hold the Free Patriotic Movement party flag in the Christian mountain town of Baabdat, Lebanon, on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2007. Tens of thousands of Lebanese voted Sunday to replace two assassinated lawmakers in a tense election... (Associated Press)

The complex political crisis in Lebanon deepened yesterday when a Christian opposition candidate defeated a pro-government former president in a special parliamentary election—one of two held to fill seats of anti-Syrian politicians assassinated last year.
Ex-president Amin Gemayel, a key player in the US backed majority coalition, was running for the seat left vacant by the murder of his son

Gemayel lost by just 418 votes of 79,000 cast. The winner, Michel Aoun, leads an opposition that includes pro-Syrian Hezbollah. Aoun is expected to run for president in upcoming elections. In the other parliamentary election yesterday, a pro-government candidate for a Sunni Muslim seat in a Beirut district coasted to victory.
(More Lebanon stories.)

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