Post by maxell on Jul 20, 2007 8:25:52 GMT -5
Amin Gemayel Enters By-Elections Race
Lebanon's former president Amin Gemayel on Friday announced he will run in disputed parliamentary by-elections to replace his son, Pierre Gemayel, who was assassinated in Beirut last November.
"I am a candidate for the deputy's seat in the Metin (mountains northeast of Beirut). Isn't it strange that the father is succeeding his son?" a visibly moved Gemayel asked in a televised press conference.
Pierre Gemayel, an anti-Syrian MP and supporter of the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, was gunned down on November 21 in a suburb north of the Lebanese capital.
The parliamentary majority blamed Syria for the killing, despite repeated denials from Damascus of any involvement in a string of attacks on anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon since the February 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.
Saniora's government has decided to hold partial elections on Aug. 5 in the Metin and in Beirut for the two seats that went vacant by the murders of Gemayel and of Walid Eido, another MP who was killed in a Beirut car bombing on June 13.
Lebanon's Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud has refused to sign the government's decree on holding the by-elections, on the grounds the cabinet has been "illegitimate" since the resignation in November of six pro-Syrian ministers.
Gibrane Tueni, a third member of the anti-Syrian majority in parliament, which is tasked with electing the next president by a September deadline, was assassinated in December 2005 and replaced by his father Ghassan Tueni
Lebanon's former president Amin Gemayel on Friday announced he will run in disputed parliamentary by-elections to replace his son, Pierre Gemayel, who was assassinated in Beirut last November.
"I am a candidate for the deputy's seat in the Metin (mountains northeast of Beirut). Isn't it strange that the father is succeeding his son?" a visibly moved Gemayel asked in a televised press conference.
Pierre Gemayel, an anti-Syrian MP and supporter of the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, was gunned down on November 21 in a suburb north of the Lebanese capital.
The parliamentary majority blamed Syria for the killing, despite repeated denials from Damascus of any involvement in a string of attacks on anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon since the February 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.
Saniora's government has decided to hold partial elections on Aug. 5 in the Metin and in Beirut for the two seats that went vacant by the murders of Gemayel and of Walid Eido, another MP who was killed in a Beirut car bombing on June 13.
Lebanon's Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud has refused to sign the government's decree on holding the by-elections, on the grounds the cabinet has been "illegitimate" since the resignation in November of six pro-Syrian ministers.
Gibrane Tueni, a third member of the anti-Syrian majority in parliament, which is tasked with electing the next president by a September deadline, was assassinated in December 2005 and replaced by his father Ghassan Tueni