Levant in Focus: Reactions from the Lebanese blogosphere

Following Lebanon's pro-majority win, the Lebanese blogosphere, and other Lebanese media outlets, have been hoppin'. Here are some interesting reactions:

On The Ouwet Front, writers posted notes of congratulations:

Congratulations my friends.

GOD BLESS THE FREE LEBANESE PEOPLE

10452KM2 ALWAYS

and

Mabrouk lal Sheikh Nadim Bashir Gemayel!
Mabrouk la Nayla Gebran Tueni!

and posted pictures of street celebrations in Beirut:

Click here to see the rest.

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Over at Ya Libnan, Ghassan Karam dared to question: Beginning of the End of Hezbollah Hegemony? Here is an excerpt:

We could be about to experience a sea change in the governmental structure of Lebanon that will have wide ranging impact all throughout the region.

It is clear that the coalition of March 14 has prevailed. They have maintained their majority by winning, in conjunction with their allies, 71 of the 128 parliamentary seats. The victory is much bigger than what the numbers of seats reflects since these results were accomplished against the obstacles and machinations of Hezbollah, its allies in Lebanon and beyond. The Syrian President , Bashar Assad, and his Iranian counterpart, Ahmadinejad , must be quite displeased about the performance of their Lebanese agents especially that of General Aoun. This victory is so much more impressive in light of the fact that March 14 has managed to maintain its majority under two different electoral setups, 2005 and 2009.

Read the whole article here.

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The Lebanese Inner Circle posted this YouTube video on Lebanon's 'message of peace':

A fool's dream to gather all Lebanese, from clowns, to teachers, mother, activists, buddhists to march [in] a peace parade all the way to the disputed Shebaa Farms to declare openly to Syria, and Israel, that Lebanese want peace. "

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At Across the Bay, Tony Badran who also blogs for Levant in Focus regularly, maps out the election results:

Let's run through what seems to be the final result of the election. It seems, with the preliminary results, that the March 14 coalition and its independent allies have won 71 seats, adding one seat to their current total, despite what March 8 thought would be an electoral law advantageous to them (the 1960 law adopted in the now-defunct Doha Accord). This puts to rest the myth that in 2005, M14 won because of its alliance with Hezbollah and the gerrymandering of the electoral law of 2000. M14's victory is clear. It ran unified lists and wherever M14 won, the lists won in total without any breaches.

Who are the winners and losers?

Read the rest of the analysis here.

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Here are some quotes from top Lebanese officials on the election results (from Ya Libnan):

SAAD AL-HARIRI, LEADER OF THE ANTI-SYRIAN COALITION

Congratulations to Lebanon, congratulations to democracy, congratulations to freedom. The Lebanese have proved today their commitment to freedom and democracy. There are no winners and losers in this election, the only winner is democracy and the biggest winner is Lebanon.

LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER FOUAD SINIORA, MARCH 14 [ALLIANCE]

On his Sidon victory: "I dedicate this victory, God willing, to Lebanon and the Lebanese and the soul of the martyr Rafik al-Hariri."

I was leaning toward thinking that there is a majority that will be preserved and may achieve more gains. I believe that we have made steps forward and the most important thing to consider is... to act humbly and this is what should judge the future performance, embrace all of the nation's people to take our country to the future.

HIZBULLAH MP, HASSAN FADLALLAH, MARCH 8 [ALLIANCE]

We consider that Lebanon is ruled by partnership and whatever the results of the elections are, we cannot change the standing delicate balances or repeat the experiences of the past which led to catastrophes on Lebanon and showed the inability of one party monopolizing power. Whoever wants political stability, the preservation of national unity and the resurrection of Lebanon will find no choice but to accept the principle of consensus.

LEBANESE DRUZE LEADER, WALID JUMBLATT, MARCH 14 ALLIANCE

We should not forget that the elections should be a boost to the dialogue and we should not try to isolate the other parties.

Read the whole post here.

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Over at Land and People, a brief analysis on the winners of the Lebanese elections what it means in practice for the Lebanese Parliament:

...Now it is all wait and see: will the winners invite the other side, especially the Shi'a block, to take part in the cabinet? Will they give them veto power as in the last government? What will the role of the President, who aligned himself with the March 14 in Jubayl and lost in his own district, be? Will he get the veto power in government? Will the new government avoid the issue of disarming Hizbullah or will it raise it again? How will this be done? To what extent will it allow itself to be manipulated by regional and global powers such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the US, who have been actively promoting March 14? Things might totally get out of control if wrong steps are taken. After all, as As Safir put it, the elections re-created the type of Parliament that brought Lebanon to Civil War in 1975. They called it: the Parliament of Civil Partition."

The rest here.

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For a constant stream of reactions, check out the #lebanonelections Twitter page. A snapshot: