The real story of the Lebanese elections

An opposition leader called me this morning. Now recriminations in the ranks of the opposition begins. There are many stories and layers to what happened. One account is that the Saudi government duped the Syrian government: the Syrian government is traditionally stingy but was planning on spending money in support of the elections. The Saudi government told the Syrian government that they will refrain from spending any money in support of the Hariri candidates. The Syrian government--according to this opposition source--was more than happy to shelve the money, thereby allowing the Saudi government to spend freely. Not that the Syrian government was in any position to compete with the funds of Prince Muqrin. The source also complained about disunity among the opposition: he said that opposition groups and personalities never even met to coordinate strategy for the election. He told me that Mishel `Awn was stubbornly stingy and that he allegedly pocketed $50 million without spending on the election campaign. He said that the Sunni vote did the job, in Zahlah and other places. I said: but the Sunni vote became more unified and overwhelmingly pro-Hariri in the wake of the speeches by Hasan Nasrallah and Na`im Qasim.