INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2014 No victor in Lebanon presidential vote BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament failed to elect vote was submitted for former president a new president yesterday, with no candidate Amine Gemayel, and seven votes were securing the two-thirds of the votes needed deemed void. to win and many lawmakers leaving their bal- Hezbollah’s bloc, which holds 57 seats in lots blank. With the parliament divided the parliament, has yet to announce its sup- between two powerful blocs, one centred port for a candidate. around the Hezbollah movement and the But its supporters strongly oppose Geagea other opposed to it, the outcome had been for his anti-Hezbollah stance, and other critics expected. point to his convictions for crimes committed The parliament will now hold a second during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war. vote on April 30, in which the winning candi- Several lawmakers marked their ballots date will need only a simple majority of 65 with the names of political figures Geagea votes. Yesterday, 124 of the parliament’s 128 was convicted of killing during the conflict. members were present, with 48 casting their Lawmakers must pick a replacement for ballots for Samir Geagea, the candidate President Michel Sleiman before his term backed by the March 14 movement that ends on May 25, but the political class opposes Hezbollah. remains deeply divided over the issue of Observers had predicted Geagea would Hezbollah’s arsenal and the war in neighbour- fail to win the two-thirds majority required ing Syria. because of his fierce anti-Hezbollah stance. The March 14 bloc, led by Saad Hariri, the But speaking after the vote, he said he would son of assassinated former prime minister not drop out of the race. Rafiq Hariri, wants Hezbollah’s military power “I will continue with my candidacy. We are reined in and largely backs the uprising not going to compromise, and the other par- against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. ty must name a candidate so there can be Hezbollah and its supporters say it needs democratic elections,” Geagea said. Members its weapons to protect Lebanon from Israel, of the rival March 8 bloc centred around the and the Shiite movement has sent thou- powerful Shiite Hezbollah movement have sands of fighters to Syria to support Assad’s not officially backed a candidate, and most of forces. The Syrian conflict has raised ten- CAIRO: Egyptians look at a destroyed police vehicle following an attack which targeted and killed senior police officer Brigadir General Ahmed Zaki its members appeared to have submitted sions in Lebanon and spilled over the bor- after an explosive device was placed under his car in Cairo’s 6th October neighbourhood yesterday. — AFP blank ballot papers — 52 in total. der. Yesterday, a security source said four A second candidate, Henri Helou, who is rockets fired from Syria landed in uninhabit- backed by members of a small bloc of inde- ed areas in the Baalbek region of eastern Two policemen, militant pendents and centrists, won 16 votes. One Lebanon. — AFP killed in car bomb in Cairo Militant hideout raided near Alexandria CAIRO: An Egyptian policeman and a militant Two other militants were detained, the min- Cairo, when a bomb placed under his car went were killed when security forces raided a hide- istry spokesman, Hany Abdel Latif, said in a tele- off. out used by radical Islamists near Alexandria yes- vised statement. Footage broadcast on state TV Two conscript policemen were wounded in terday, and a senior officer was killed near Cairo appeared to show the body of a militant on the the bombing. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis has claimed when a bomb blew up his car, the Interior ground. responsibility for attacks including a failed Ministry said. The militants were “among the dangerous attempt to blow up the interior minister last Militant violence has spiralled since the army elements of the terrorist group Ansar Bayt al- September, and large bomb attacks on police toppled Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Maqdis, which was planning to target police and stations. Brotherhood last July. That poses a security chal- military facilities and the security forces”, the The United States this month designated lenge ahead of a presidential election in May ministry said. The police seized weapons includ- Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis as a terrorist group. The that Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief, is ing explosive belts, automatic weapons, hand group first emerged in the Sinai Peninsula in expected to win. grenades and ammunition. 2011 after the downfall of Hosni Mubarak. Since The hideout targeted in the raid was used by last July, it has switched its focus from attacking members of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, or Supporters Threats Israel to killing Egyptian security forces. of Jerusalem, the group behind some of the Attacks claimed by Islamist militants have It has also claimed responsibility for a Feb. 16 deadliest attacks of the last nine months, the killed around 500 people since last July, mostly attack that killed three South Korean tourists in Interior Ministry said. policemen and soldiers. The threat has been the Sinai Peninsula. The militants had opened fire on the security compounded by a flow of weapons from neigh- The Muslim Brotherhood, declared a terrorist forces as they arrived at the hideout in Borg El bouring Libya. Another militant group called group by the government in December, has con- Arab, some 45 km (28 miles) south-west of Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, has also claimed demned the violence. Sisi, who deposed Mursi, Alexandria. responsibility for attacks. the country’s first freely elected president, fol- BEIRUT: Lebanese member of parliament Sethrida Geagea wife of presidential candidate The police officer killed in the raid was named The police officer killed near Cairo yesterday lowing mass protests against his rule, has vowed Samir Geagea walks with an advisor after casting her vote for the new Lebanese presi- as First Lieutenant Ahmed Saad and the dead was named as Brigadier General Ahmed Zaki. to crush the militant threat. He offered condo- dent in the parliament building in downtown Beirut yesterday. Lebanon’s parliament militant as Hassan Abdel Aal, a 25-year old from State media said he was killed outside his home lences in a statement issued by his presidential failed to elect a new president, with no candidate securing the two-thirds of the vote the Nile Delta province of Dakahlia. in 6th of October City, 32 km (20 miles) outside election campaign. — Reuters needed to win and many lawmakers leaving their ballots blank. — AFP Palestinians in new unity push as Israel talks teeter GAZA CITY: Rival Palestinian leaders from the West Bank and But Netanyahu accused him of setting impossible terms. Gaza Strip agreed yesterday to form a unity government with- “We’re trying to relaunch the negotiations with the in five weeks as peace talks with Israel face collapse. Palestinians. Every time we get to that point, Abu Mazen It is not the first time that the rival sides have announced a stacks on additional condition which he knows that Israel can- deal to end seven years of separate Palestinians administra- not give.” — AFP tions in the West Bank and Gaza. But the new bid by the Palestinian leadership based in the West Bank to reconcile with the Hamas rulers of Gaza drew an angry reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Syrian lawmaker Netanyahu who said it showed it was not serious about 11th- hour efforts to salvage US-brokered peace negotiations. first to field run The agreement was reached in talks in Gaza City which continued into the early hours of the morning between Hamas leaders and a Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) for presidency delegation headed by Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior figure in president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement. DAMASCUS: A Syrian lawmaker announced his candida- The two sides met again later on Wednesday for talks cy for the June 3 presidential election - the first to field his expected to focus on the holding of fresh presidential and bid for the top post in a vote called despite the country’s parliamentary elections across the Palestinian territories, as relentless civil war, state-run television reported yester- well as Hamas’s admission to the PLO. day. President Bashar Assad has suggested he would seek Sources close to the talks said they were being held in a another term in office but has not announced his candi- “positive atmosphere.” The rival sides have announced several dacy yet. According to a new election law, the balloting must be contested by more than one candidate. Analysts times before that they would make way for a unity govern- said they expected at least one candidate to run against ment of technocrats only for it to fail to materialise, and ana- Assad to give the election a veneer of legitimacy. lysts expressed scepticism that this time would be any differ- Lawmaker Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar registered his ent. candidacy yesterday, said parliament speaker Jihad “People have heard the same thing over and over again Laham. Syrian state television said the 43-year-old was and each time the agreement had been broken by either from the northern city of Aleppo, and that his ancestors Fatah or Hamas,” said Samir Awad, politics professor at Birzeit were well-learned in Islamic law, suggesting the candi- University in the West Bank. date is part of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority. Analyst Hani al-Masri said: “This reconciliation has hardly The armed rebels fighting to overthrow Assad are any substance on the ground. It could collapse at any mostly Sunni Muslims.