Saad and Sitrida Take Akkar by Storm, Aoun Rattles Byblos

Saad Rafik Hariri has braved assassination threats to make his first foray into northern Lebanon and announce a coalition ticket with Sitrida Samir Geagea for all 12 seats of the Dinniyeh-Akkar-Besharri constituency as Gen. Aoun announced his list for the Kesrouan-Jbeil district on platform of "change and reform." Both Hariri and the General made their announcements from behind bullet-proof glass curtains set up on makeshift podiums in Akkar and Byblos townships, introducing a head-on collision for supremacy in Lebanon's first free-from-Syria parliament. Hariri, whose Beirut bandwagon is now rolling fast across the north and the Western Bekaa Valley, is fiercely allied with Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces, Walid Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party and all groups banding in the Qornet Shahwan coalition of center-right Christian politicians under Patriarch Sfeir's wing. Aoun aligned his Free Patriotic Movement with Talal Arslan's Lebanese Democratic Party in the Druze hinterland, Suleiman Franjieh in north Lebanon, Elie Skaff in Zahleh and formed his own personal axis in Kesrouan-Jbeil of Lebanon's Christian heartland. The General reiterated his determination to bring all officials of the post-civil war era in the past 15 years for corrupting the administration and plundering state funds within Syrian-sponsored 'mafias.' The entire political class that reigned over the last 15 years, including presidents, premiers, speakers, cabinet ministers and parliament members should be subjected to accountability, the General said. Hariri, in turn, noted that he was fulfilling his father's dream of visiting the north, which was long declared off limits for him by Syria's now defunct hegemony. "We are now transiting the crucial interregnum between external trusteeship over our decision-making and the assumption of the decision-making process by ourselves," the young Hariri said. His northern thrust despite security threats cemented the Hariri family emergence as the undisputed standard-bearer of Lebanon's Sunni community, which is the nation's biggest voting bloc. Interior ministry official figures show that there are 200,000 Sunni eligible voters more than the Shiite community, which is Lebanon's largest single sect population-wise. Saad was flanked by Sitrida Geagea and Tayyar Al Mustaqbal's legislator Ahmed Fatfat, when he read out to some 50,000 cheering crowds the names of the coalition ticket with the LF. He then brought Mrs. Geagea to a face-to-face reconciliation with the prominent Sunni clerics in Akkar to head off the threat of a fundamentalist Sunni backlash in the June 19 polls against Samir Geagea's wife and the second LF candidate for Besharri seats, Elie Kairouz.