Son of slain Lebanon PM unveils election list

BEIRUT - Assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri's son unveiled his ticket for this month's elections on Sunday and promised to heal sectarian splits threatening to unravel the anti-Syrian opposition.

To the dismay of Lebanese who hoped for a fresh start after the Syrians pulled out last month, the opposition movement that pressured them to quit is splintering along the sectarian lines that traditionally rule at the ballot box.

Hariri's February 14 killing brought together Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims who held Syria responsible and took to the streets to demand that their larger neighbour end its 29-year military and intelligence presence in Lebanon.

The protests toppled the pro-Syrian government and security chiefs and secured an international probe into Hariri's death.

"Rafik al-Hariri's blood will not go to waste," Saad al-Hariri, the Sunni Muslim former prime minister's son told a cheering audience.

"We will not let sectarian rancour affect the unity of Beirut and the Lebanese. We will not allow any ... sectarian strife the opportunity to sabotage the achievements that have been secured."

Cracks have emerged. Christian opposition figures wanted electoral boundaries to be redrawn before the polls, fearing their voices were lost in large, majority-Muslim districts.

But political sources say Hariri's bloc and Druze chieftain Walid Jumblatt broke with them to strike a secret deal with the pro-Syrian Shi'ite Hizbollah and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to keep an electoral law that serves them all well.

Lebanon's political system carefully distributes offices among the various religious minorities who fought a 15-year war that split the country into Christian and Muslim enclaves.

Voting takes place in four rounds between May 29 and June 19. Hariri's list is expected to sweep the first in mainly Sunni Beirut.

Hariri had been due to unveil his list last week, but delayed the announcement because of a dispute within the opposition over who should fill the one Maronite seat in Beirut.

Two candidates bowed out on Sunday, handing the seat to the only one remaining, Solange Gemayel, whose husband Bashir led the right-wing Phalange Party until he was assassinated in 1982, soon after being named president.

The four electoral lists unveiled so far are expected to win under the existing electoral law.

Berri, a Shi'ite Muslim with close ties to Syria, is joining forces with the Hizbollah guerrilla group in southern Lebanon to run two joint tickets that are expected to win all 23 seats.

Druze chieftain Walid Jumblatt announced an alliance on Sunday with his war-time foes, the Maronite Lebanese Forces (LF), in his Shouf mountain stronghold.

Most of the same faces are likely to return, but with supporters of anti-Syrian former general Michel Aoun, who returned from exile this month, also taking several seats along with some other Maronite opponents of Damascus.

With two weeks left and international pressure on Lebanon to hold elections on time, political sources say the law is unlikely to change.

- REUTERS