Nayla Assaf
Daily Star staff

In the fall-out of the Metn by-elections, supporters of Gabriel Murr continued to assert his victory Friday, with candidate Ghassan Mokheiber describing the election results as proof of “popular discontent” in the country.
Opposition leaders submitted to the media the Higher Vote Tabulation Committee’s first report, which gives Gabriel Murr the advantage by three votes, amid reports Friday that Myrna Murr may be declared winner.
Later in the evening, former Interior Minister Michel Murr, who had postponed his conference, told his supporters in Amarat Shalhoub that Myrna Murr had won by 15 votes.
Displaying a later Tabulation Committee report, Murr said that the committee had declared Myrna Murr winner and criticized his son Elias Murr’s handling of the elections.
“The Interior Ministry had to announce the results as figured in the report, because according to the law, the Interior Ministry is not allowed to dig up papers,” he said, in a reference to the discovery by Interior Minister Elias Murr that the Qaaqour ballot had been counted twice.
During a joint conference with Gabriel Murr, former President Amin Gemayel and Metn MP Pierre Gemayel at his office in Sin al-Fil, Metn MP Nassib Lahoud said that “it’s about time that the authorities come to terms with reality, which is that Gabriel Murr won the Metn elections ­ whichever way one manipulates the results.”
In an effort to circumvent any further twist in the results of the elections, which were concluded with an evasive declaration by the interior minister Tuesday, Lahoud said that Sunday night, he and MP Pierre Gemayel had left the Jdeideh Serail right after receiving the results from the head of the Higher Vote Tabulation Committee, Elias Abu Nassif. He denied reports of having been notified on the same evening of the error in the Hemlaya polling station.
Lahoud said that upon receiving the results of the first report, which gave 34,894 votes to Gabriel Murr and 34,891 to Myrna Murr, he had received the confirmation from Abu Nassif that Gabriel Murr was the winner.
Displaying a copy of the first report, Lahoud said: “This is the official report, and it is signed and it is the most important document concerning the Metn elections.
“We cannot understand why, after we were officially informed of the results, we started hearing news of letters, reports, and declarations by the interior minister,” he said, adding that any declaration succeeding the first report was obsolete.
According to Lahoud, Gabriel Murr was the winner since that evening. This was confirmed by Elias Murr on Tuesday  after discovering that the Qaaqour ballot had been inadvertently counted twice.
“Either way one looks at it, Gabriel Murr is the Metn MP, and this matter is final,” Lahoud said, adding that he could not understand how “some people are questioning the election process and coming up with tactics … to mislead citizens.”
Lahoud also clarified that the purpose of his visit to President Emile Lahoud Friday was to confirm that he was not considered to be a party in the elections, and to invite him to reach out to the opposition.
When asked about the recent reports of a dispute between Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Michel Murr over the premier’s alleged working against Myrna Murr, Lahoud denied the allegations.
“Hariri had a clear position in the battle, and he worked to back Myrna Murr,” he contended.
On the way the elections were conducted, former President Amin Gemayel said the opposition was interested in the direct pressure of security officers and first rank employees, proposing the formation of a Parliamentary committee to investigate all the interventions and violations by the authorities.
“We hope that one day there is an investigation that will be conducted by a Parliamentary investigative committee and we will be ready to submit all the information we have in that respect,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ghassan Mokheiber said in a statement Friday that voters were protesting the performance that “brought the country … to a boiling point.”
Among the failures of the government cited by Mokheiber were the failure by the Syrians to implement a pullout from the country and by the government to correct relations between the two countries.
Mokheiber also cited the misuse of state prerogatives for personal gain and the failure of the government to enshrine voter privacy by insisting on the use of voting screens at polling stations.

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