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March 14 group claims Lebanon win
Al Jazeera News
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Al-Hariri has appealed for calm from both sides as supporters have begun street celebrations [AFP]
The leader of Lebanon 's March 14 coalition has declared victory over Hezbollah's coalition in the country's closely-contested parliamentary elections.
Unofficial results projected Saad al-Hariri's anti-Syrian coalition, which held the majority in the outgoing parliament, would win 70 seats in the new 128-seat assembly against the Hezbollah alliance's 58 seats.
"Congratulations to Lebanon , congratulations to democracy, congratulations to freedom," the son of slain former prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, said in a televised address from Beirut early on Monday.
The outcome is a blow to Hezbollah's supporters Syria and Iran, and a boost to the US, Saudi Arabia and Egypt which back al-Hariri's movement known as March 14 – the date of a rally in
2005 against Syria's military presence in Lebanon following the assassination of the senior al-Hariri.
Al Jazeera's James Bays , reporting from Beirut , said the results were not official but all the
political parties seemed to be accepting them.
The different parties would now try to reach an agreement on forming a coalition government, our correspondent said.
Unity government sought
The Hezbollah alliance, known as the March 8 movement, has not officially conceded defeat but its main Christian ally, the nationalist Free Patriotic Movement led by former General Michel Aoun, acknowledged defeat.
He vowed to work with the election winners to form a coalition government.
Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah MP, said Lebanon was ruled by a partnership and the delicate
balances or past experiences cannot be changed regardless of the election results.
"What matters to us now is that Lebanon turns a new page, one based on partnership,
co-operation and understanding," he told the AFP news agency.
"No party can claim to have won the majority among all communities.
"Whoever wants political stability, the preservation of national unity and the resurrection of Lebanon will find no choice but to accept the principle of consensus."
Michel de Chadarevian, a member of the alliance's political bureau, said "even if we had won we would have formed a national unity government".
And Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Druze leader in the March 14 alliance, said Hezbollah and its allies should be included in a new Lebanese government.
"We should not forget that the elections should be a boost to the dialogue and we should not try to isolate the other parties," he said.
Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by the US , is an armed group backed by Syria and Iran that touts itself as a resistance movement that protects Lebanon from Israel .
It fought a war with Israel in 2006 that left more than a thousand mostly Lebanese people dead but showed up weaknesses in the Israeli military that were heavily criticised in an Israeli parliamentary report.
Hezbollah has repeatedly called for the formation of a "national unity government" that would give its minority alliance veto power.
High turnout
Various parties are expected to form a coalition government [Reuters]
Final results are not due until later on Monday, but following al-Hariri's victory declaration, March
14 supporters were already celebrating across the Lebanese capital, shooting guns in the air, setting off fireworks and driving around sounding car horns.
Saying "the only winner is democracy and Lebanon ", al-Hariri called on supporters of the rival camps to refrain from any provocation.
Security was tight in sensitive areas for fear of fighting between rivals in a war-scarred country that remains deeply divided along sectarian lines.
Security sources said one person was wounded by gunfire in the northern city of Tripoli and there were brawls between rival supporters elsewhere, but there were no reports of serious fighting and
voting was relatively trouble-free.
The interior ministry estimated voter turnout at more than 52.3 per cent, the highest since at least the end of the 1975-91 civil war.
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