Former Lebanese Prime Minister Wins Landslide Parliamentary VictoryFormer Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was poised late Monday for a return to power as final results from the second round of Lebanese parliamentary elections gave him and his allies an overwhelming victory over incumbent Prime Minister Salim Hoss in Beirut.Interior Minister Michel al-Murr said Hariri had won 22 percent of the total ballots cast in Beirut. Hariri and candidates running on his ticket swept 18 of the 19 seats up for grabs in the capital, including seats held by Hoss and three of his Cabinet ministers. The nineteenth seat went to Mohammed Berjawi, a Shiite Muslim who said at the eleventh hour that he too supported the construction magnate Hariri, a billionaire tycoon who stepped down in 1998 after a dispute with President Emile Lahoud. The final results make Hariri the most likely candidate to emerge as prime minister under the country's complex, factionalized political structure. Hoss conceded defeat, blaming the loss on Hariri's huge spending power. "I accept it democratically and will act accordingly," the Lahoud-backed candidate said. "I will persist in my career as a politician but from outside parliament, of course." |
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