US backed March 14 Undecided: 4 Candidates for 3 Seats in Shouf!

 
Source: Al-Manar TV, 24-02-2009
... And in the Shouf, one of the Mount Lebanon districts located South-east of Beirut, the electoral battle seems to be interesting enough!
There, the (US backed) March 14 forces don't feel to be very comfortable, and the differences among its constituents seem to dominate anything else..
In this district, there are eight seats, four of which are devoted to Christians: three for the Maronites and one for the Catholics. Yet, the catholic seat is the only decided one with MP Nehmeh Tohmet getting it.
However, there are four March 14 "confident" candidates for the three Maronite seats: MPs George Adwan and Elie Aoun, former MP Ghattas Khoury and the National Liberal Party chief Dory Chamoun.
Khoury and Aoun stress that they have "reserved" seats, saying that all factions approved their running for the elections. However, the third Maronite seat is not settled yet and a conflict seems to have erupted between Adwan and Chamoun.
According to press reports, the head of the Democratic Gathering MP Walid Jumblatt is in favor of Chamoun. In this case, the Lebanese Forces would find itself with no seats in the district.
Chamoun told Al-Manar that he will be running for the elections, stressing that the third Maronite seat was his own not Adwan's. He admitted that there was a problem within the March 14 forces in the district but refused to say that he was going to take anyone's seat. "There is a golden rule we should follow to resolve the conflict and it's too simply to choose the one who's able of securing more votes, whether it was Georges Adwan or me."
Meanwhile, well-informed sources told Al-Manar that Chamoun might withdraw from the electoral battle and give his place for Adwan with $5 million in return.
For its part, the opposition is determined to engage in the electoral battle in the district through a complete and unified list. In this context, Social Affairs Minister Mario Aoun told Al-Manar that the opposition was serious in engaging in the battle. "MP Walid Jumblatt thinks himself the district's master who decides everything," he said, noting that Jumblatt was even giving himself the right of "appointing" the district's Christian MPs. "This is not the people's will," he said, calling on people to vote for the change "since our resolution is that there is no master and slave in Shouf."