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Lebanese Druze opposition leader Walid Jumblatt Sunday rejected a delay in upcoming elections and urged for unity of the opposition factions to win the elections in Beirut.
Jumblatt, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, told a press conference that "of course we insist on elections on schedule," calling on the opposition to meet and come up with a program.
"We should have a clear and ambitious answer to what's next," he said, predicting an opposition win regardless of the shape of the electoral law.
He also expressed his disagreement with the UN resolution 1559in what concerns Lebanon's Hezbollah (Party of God) and called on the opposition to have a unified vision of means to hold dialogue with Hezbollah.
On the other hand, Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karami is expected to unveil a long-awaited new government on Monday to lead the country into the election, saying the new government will draw up a draft law organizing polls.
Work on the draft is expected to take weeks, forcing a delay in the polls, political sources say, adding the opposition wants elections as soon as possible to capitalize on public sympathy after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.Pro-government loyalists want a delay of the elections in the hope that public fury will die down and divisions will appear among the ranks of a disparate opposition.
Hariri was killed in a bomb blast on Feb. 14, which the Lebanese opposition have accused Syria and the pro-Syrian authorities of being responsible for.
Under US-led pressure and popular protests after the Feb. 14killing, Syria has pledged to withdraw its troops from Lebanon by April 30 and the Karami government had to resign though he was reappointed as the prime minister by President Emile Lahoud. Also on Sunday, tens of thousands of Lebanese people from Christian and Muslim regions across the country took part in a five km (3.2 mile) race in central Beirut to launch festivities to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the start of Lebanon's civil war which began on April 13.
(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2005)
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