 Lebanon's Jamaa Islameyya has asked its supporters to boycott the forthcoming parliamentary elections because "they are fixed by the American and French governments".
| "And voting's un-Islamic..." |
"The key reason for our decision to boycott the elections is because the Americans and the French are outlining the list of nominees. The results and lists have been fixed earlier," said Zuhair Al Obaidi, a member of the Sunni group. He also criticised the election law terming it as "unfair".
| "Yeah, there ain't no way we'd win, even if we campaigned..." |
"It leads us to the same political clique that was ruling the country between 2000 and 2005," said Al Obaidi in an interview with Gulf News. Referring to the February 14 assassination of Rafik Hariri, former Lebanese prime minister, Al Obaidi said: "The current trend is to exploit Hariri's martyrdom."
| "We think they oughta just ignore it..." |
"Any candidate who runs against the list of Hariri's party is accused of a role in his assassination. Therefore, we have decided not to participate in the elections and we call upon our supporters to boycott it as well."
| "I mean, it ain't like we had anything to do with bumping him off..." |
The elections, which are staggered over four weekends starting from tomorrow, are the first since Damascus withdrew its troops from Lebanon last month in line with a previously ignored UN Security Council resolution. Many believe they may return many of the same faces to the 128-member assembly. For the first time in Lebanon, foreign observers, led by a 100-strong European Union team, will monitor the elections. |