BEIRUT, 17 April 2005 — President Emile Lahoud yesterday promised to hold “free and honest” elections, an announcement apparently aimed at easing foreign pressure and appeasing the country’s anti-Syrian opposition. Lahoud’s pledge, made during a meeting with a European Union delegation, came a day after he named moderate, pro-Syrian Najib Mikati as prime minister.
Lahoud, whose country is coming under increasing US and European pressure to ensure elections are held before the current legislature’s mandate expires May 31, stressed he had agreed with Mikati on speeding the formation of a new Cabinet to prepare for elections. “The forthcoming parliamentary elections will be an occasion through which the Lebanese will express their political choices in a free, honest and democratic atmosphere,” Lahoud told the EU delegation, according to a statement issued by the president’s office.
He affirmed Lebanon’s commitment to ensuring neutral, transparent elections and said Beirut would accept “neutral local or foreign groups” to monitor the polls.
Mikati’s appointment Friday broke a political deadlock, coming two days after Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami quit following several weeks of failed efforts to form a government. The elections are crucial for the opposition, which backed Mikati in an effort to end the impasse in forming a government and open the way for elections many believe will break Syria’s hold on Parliament.
The European Union urged Lebanese authorities yesterday to hold “free, fair and transparent elections on schedule ... without any outside interference or meddling.”
“The European Union will keep a careful watch on the electoral process and stands ready to provide its assistance,” said a statement on behalf of the EU presidency after the EU delegation meeting with Lahoud.
US officials have also repeatedly called for “free and fair elections” in the presence of international observers without foreign interference — a reference to Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon which has held enormous political influence in the country since Syrian troops entered Lebanon in 1976.
Lebanon’s opposition groups, long suspicious of Syria’s role in influencing the elections, have also demanded international observers to monitor the elections. Karami’s outgoing government has resisted the idea of international observers, arguing that it infringes on Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Lahoud said the new Cabinet’s priorities will be to steer an electoral bill through Parliament and call an election, follow up on the investigation into the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, closely cooperate with an international commission to probe the killing and revive the battered economy.
Mikati, who has the support of anti-Syrian opposition members and some of Syria’s ardent supporters, yesterday made protocol visits to three former prime ministers in Beirut before traveling to his hometown of Tripoli, in the north, where he met with his arch political foe, Karami.
The premier-designate, who did not talk to reporters after the meetings, is scheduled to begin consultations tomorrow with parliamentary blocs on the formation of a Cabinet.
Mikati, 49, a Sunni Muslim, was first elected to Parliament in 2000. He has distanced himself from the pro-Syrian camp since Hariri’s assassination, though he maintains business ties to Syria as well as a personal relationship with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
