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| 11 April 2005 | Monday | 01 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
Jumblatt wants polls on schedule
Mr Jumblatt also said the election should be held as scheduled.
Pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami is expected to unveil a long-awaited new government on Monday to lead the country into the election but his insistence on a new law organizing the poll makes a delay almost inevitable.
“Of course we insist on elections on schedule,” Mr Jumblatt told a news conference, predicting an opposition win regardless of the shape of the electoral law.
“I call on the opposition to meet and come up with a programme, because it’s not enough that we reach the elections and vote. We should have a clear and ambitious answer to what’s next,” the Druze chieftain, an ally-turned-foe of Syria, said.
“In the end of the day, we will win the elections.”
Syria, under US-led pressure and facing popular protests after the Feb 14 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, has pledged to withdraw its troops from Lebanon by April 30.
Syrian forces first moved into Lebanon in 1976, near the start of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, and became the dominant force in Lebanese politics.
—Reuters
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