"...It takes fear & money to promote democracy in Lebanon..."

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FORBES, here

".....Judging by this election, it takes fear and money to promote democracy in Lebanon. Government supporters feared that the Shia Muslim militant group Hezbollah would win a parliamentary majority with its own allies and spark a national crisis. The Hariri bloc knew how to exploit this fear on the campaign trail when it claimed that a victory for the Hezbollah-led opposition would lead to a tripartite sharing of government and administrative posts between Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Christians. They are currently only shared two ways, between Muslims and Christians.

A related fear was also how the international community would react to a Hezbollah victory. American Vice-President Joe Biden visited Lebanon ....U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is also a strong financial backer of Lebanon, supporting Sunni interests ...

Then there was money. Cash came in handy when flying Lebanese expatriates into the country to cast their vote on Sunday, a tactic which all sides reportedly dabbled in. Tales abound of parties buying $700 plane tickets for citizens abroad, with Iran, Syria and rival Saudi Arabia reported to be contributing to a $1 billion travel pot in total splashed across the country. Evidently March 14 still managed to tip the balance in this arena, with Hezbollah's main Christian ally, Michel Aoun, failing to tear crucial votes away from Christian allies of Hariri like the right-wing Phalangists.

It would be unfair to see this as a stolen election, however. Hezbollah clearly did not do itself any favors by talking up its achievements of May 2008, when it turned its guns inwards for the first time and stormed Sunni neighborhoods to extract veto power from the government...."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 5:55 PM