Lawyer calls to boycott polls to spur Geagea's release

By Maroun Khoury , Daily Star , May 21, 2005

BKIRKI: The attorney representing disbanded Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea said the only way to ensure the release of his client from prison before the May-June parliamentary elections is for LF candidates to boycott the elections unless Geagea is released.

Following a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, attorney Assad Abi Raad said: "The LF asks its partners in the Qornet Shehwan Gathering, as well as General Michel Aoun, to follow in its footsteps; this way the elections will not be held without the participation of the LF, the gathering and the Free Patriotic Movement."

He added: "It is the last chance; do not miss it because if Geagea is not freed before the elections, then when?"

Western Bekaa-Rashaya MP Faisal Daoud, who also met with Sfeir, denounced the 2000 electoral law as contributing to the squandering of $40 billion of public funds and violations of the legal system to serve personal interests.

Daoud said the 2000 electoral law allowed warlords and sectarian leaders to steal large amounts of money in the name of the law.

Beirut, Lebanon Airport named after Hariri May 21 2005 Nazek Hariri, widow of the slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri sent a …

Analysis

Have outside powers manipulated Lebanon's Christians?

By Adnan El-Ghoul , Daily Star ,  May 21, 2005

BEIRUT: Following his visit to Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, former Lebanese Ambassador to Washington Abdullah Bou Habib said that, instead of Bkirki crying for help, "We see the world's greater powers asking Sfeir to help them."

One couldn't agree less with Bou Habib's statement, nor help but wonder how he could see this type of relationship as anything other than a one-way street opposite the give-and-take principle, telling the Christian opposition to accept indefinite marginalization.

After being forced to send the Bishops' Council a "strong warning," Sfeir was further forced to ask Qornet Shehwan members to accept a "waiting list" status while the big electoral coalitions vacated a seat here or there. These coalitions, which "borrow" a Christian candidate from the opposition and sacrifice one of their own, can satisfy the Christians neither ethically nor substantially.

Moreover, Saad Hariri's Future Movement cannot repeat its sacrifice of Ghattas Khoury for the controversial Solange Gemayel in Beirut by sacrificing Jean Obeid in Tripoli without risking serious a Sunni backlash.

Despite asserting their neutrality in the elections, it was thanks to France, the U.S. and even Saudi Arabia that Lebanon was "cornered by time limits" to accept the 2000 electoral law designed to keep pro-Syrian politicians in power.

This policy seemed puzzling.