(5 Aug 2007) SHOTLIST

Beirut
1. Various of Lebanese army soldiers outside polling station
2. Close of sign on secondary school used as a polling station
3. Various of people outside polling station
4. Elderly man being carried into polling station on chair
5. Close of voter list
6. Elderly man voting
7. Various of electoral candidate Ibrahim Halabi voting
8. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ibrahim Halabi, Electoral Candidate:
"The democratic process and elections in particular, is the right track and the proper democratic way for change."
9. People inside polling station

Bikfaya
10. Convoy of Phalange party (party of slain politician Pierre Gemayel) supporters
11. Wide of people waving Phalange party flags from their homes
12. Gemayel family praying at slain son's grave
13. Pierre Gemayel's grave
14. Joyce Gemayel, Pierre's mother, crying
15. Candidate (and father of slain politician Pierre Gemayel) Amin Gemayel voting
16. Cutaway of photographers
17. Close of Gemayel's hand dropping ballot in box
18. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Amin Gemayel, Electoral Candidate:
"Today we are up against other parties that have announced their full loyalty and allegiance to Syria. So I have to question whether these parties are standing behind Aoun's (Free Patriotic) Movement only as a show of support for General (Michel) Aoun or whether there are certain dreams Syria is trying to revive within the Lebanese territories."
19. Gemayel supporters on the street
20. Various of electoral candidate Kamil Khouri voting

STORYLINE

Army and police patrols stood guard on Sunday as thousands of Lebanese headed to the polls to vote in a key election to replace two assassinated lawmakers in this politically divided country.

Sunday's tense vote is taking place in two electoral districts, one in Beirut and the other in Lebanon's Metn region, a Christian stronghold where the community is deeply divided.

Voters will pick candidates to replace legislator and cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, a Christian who was shot dead in November, and lawmaker Walid Eido, a Sunni Muslim who was killed in a Beirut car bomb in June.

Both Gemayel and Eido were vocal opponents of Syria and allies of the Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government.

Mohammed al-Amin Itani, a candidate of parliament majority leader Saad Hariri's Future Movement, is expected to easily win the contest for Eido's seat, because the opposition did not officially sponsor a candidate.

But in Metn, the vote for Gemayel's seat is a bitter contest between candidates including the assassinated politician's father.

Amin Gemayel, who was president of Lebanon for much of the 1980s, has decided to compete for his son's seat on behalf of the ruling coalition.

He faces off against Kamil Khoury, who is supported by Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, a former army commander and prime minister allied with the opposition.

Aoun's party dominated the district in the 2005 legislative elections.

At the entrance of Gemayel's hometown of Bikfaya, a large banner read "Vote for freedom and independence by voting for Gemayel in Metn and Itani in Beirut" - as crowds rallied to the former president's support.

Gemayel and his wife, Joyce, began the day by visiting Pierre Gemayel's grave before heading to the polls.

"Today we are up against other parties that have announced their full loyalty and allegiance to Syria," Gemayel told reporters after casting his vote.








Syria has denied the allegations.


Sunday's vote is the latest episode in Lebanon's worst political crisis since the country's 1975-1990 civil war.


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