this is c w news live from berlin lebanon goes to the polls for the first parliamentary elections in nearly a decade security fears and a tug of war over election reform delayed voting for years now an unprecedented number of independent candidates are hoping to shake up lebanon's political establishment and their prime minister saad hariri. also coming up. turkey's president meron everyone kicks off his election campaign part of one of moves the

move the polls up to next month and now faces a credible threat to his power from opposition alliance our sports correspondent will take us through the past of reaction. time my ass waiter thanks for joining us voters in lebanon are heading to the polls to elect a new parliament today for the first time in almost ten years sunni prime minister saad hariri and his future movement party are expected to retain power but this election will be the first under the country's new electoral laws they have replaced the previous winner takes all system with a proportional representation system which has brought all the country's sectarian power struggle into sharp focus. let's go to our own database correspondent who's following the story from beirut until the elections are underway let's talk

about prime minister saad hariri are we expecting these elections to confirm the status quo or has he lost the confidence of his supporters well i'm right now in beirut to this is the district where solidly these fighting off to the so last year when he resigned to riyadh even though subsequently upon his return to level on even to the resignation his personal popularity has climbed it's gone up and people in lebanon blame saudi arabia for that incident timing set that house on the future movement party of palms is an open question because hizbollah has cracked clever lines is and many of the sunni candidates opposing zawahiri these party have a very decent terms with hizbollah so saw the movie is going to perform well whether it's going to be future movement that's going to be leading party or whether they'll be other sunni candidates that saudi arabia may look at as an option to salary is a question that's still unanswered but these are the first elections that happened

since two thousand and nine a lot has changed in the past nine years what are some of the issues that voters have on their mind today. well you know this is essentially the first election of this generation of levanon the last elections where sensually about the generation that either participated in the civil war was subjected to the crimes that took place during the civil war so this election is about these young stars and hundreds and thousands of young waters of come in and they see our issues our civic issues garbage prices electricity prices but also in sectarian politics and continues to have a huge grip over levanon they don't want foreign meddling either they see as long as you know in saudi arabia and other powers do not stop meddling in the affairs of levanon lebanon will not be a functioning democracy having said that they do like the fact that levanon among all the countries in the middle east is that he's going ahead with these elections and that at least it's a step forward when it comes to levanon being a democracy in the middle east now you mentioned foreign influence are we seeing

any foreign powers like saudi arabia or iran trying to exert themselves on the outcome here. but i have to look khomeini the spiritual leader of iran so to say has come out in the open and back to his will and his will has several alliances including with the leading christian parties so that is clear as far as the saudis are concerned it's known that saudis backed sunni candidates that saudis have backed saad hariri and his father in the past but this time around there's a bit of a doubt of whether a saudi arabia is going to continue to back saddam he after the elections it all depends on what the result of the elections is going to be remember i earlier mentioned there are several contenders given competition to solidarity and it remains to be seen what does ofter the results come out remember levanon is a very important it's a tiny country but a very important country when it comes to the battle over dominance over these wall between saudi arabia and iran did of his and show her parting for us from beirut

thank you very much. now to some of the other stories making news around the world an explosion at a mosque in afghanistan has killed at least thirteen people and wounded many more local police said the mosque in host was also being used as a voter registration center for elections later this year no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. iran's president hassan rouhani has issued a warning to u.s. president donald trump against holing out of the iran nuclear deal honey said abandoning the deal would be a quote historic mistake but said plans are in place should it collapse trump is due to decide on the deals fate by may twelfth. russian opposition leader alexina volumnia says he's been released from custody after he was detained at an anti putin rally in moscow yesterday the valley had called for a nationwide protest against president vladimir putin's inauguration on monday for a fourth term as president some one thousand six hundred other people were also arrested in demonstrations across the country. turkish president has

launched his campaign for a snap general election that he called for june twenty fourth he has been addressing crowds of thousands gathered in istanbul everyone told them he would resist any attempt from in or outside to divide the country and promise to make turkey stronger domestically and globally as much on the line in the upcoming ballot winning it was secure him sweeping new presidential powers they were only narrowly approved last year. for more about the start of the election campaign in turkey let's go to our own yulia han in istanbul yulia what was president everyone's main message today. well his main message today was that the constitutional changes wanted for in last year's referendum now need to be institutionalized turkey needs to finish the transformation to a full presidential system the sooner the better only then he says everything will

improve the economy will improve inflation rates will go down and turkey will become a free and democratic country that's really what he said a quote free and democratic country with the necessary global standing so his message clearly is a vote for me and everything that's not going well right now will get better he specifically talked about turkey's military intervention in rules and syria saying quote again our soldiers are ready for new missed missions suggesting that the turkish army will not retreat anytime soon this is clearly him appealing to nationalist voters and he had a message for europe he said turkey never gave up the goal of joining the european union unfortunately his european counterparts on north working towards that same goal so that was his message in the past the opposition in turkey has been very divided and we see you know these four opposition parties coming together to form a coalition are they looking to actually be

a threat to air to water or is he still expected to maintain power in the way that he has. well a few weeks ago a few days ago even many here would have said this election is already decided in favor of missed out on he holds all the necessary political power as the media coverage mainstream media coverage is overwhelmingly pro al gore on pro-government pro islamic groups k.p. but now that we know about the election alliance for position parties will form an alliance at the paula mentary level and we know the candidates for the presidential election as well many people here got actually more excited thinking that these elections are going to be much more interesting than we thought and they're hoping the election and the opposition candidates can force missed out on into a second round of voting at the presidential level and that they can break the majority in parliament did overs yulia han in istanbul thank you very much.

to bring us league of football and i'm joined by tom gennari from our sports desk to talk us through the penultimate set of games it's a big day on saturday yesterday wasn't it so it was a very big day yeah now as usual for the penultimate in the final match then going to be one of the games kickoff aside a three day so it was makes for a very exciting and dramatic couple of hours. who've had a fantastic run out this season had a big chance to guarantee their second place finish in the table they played away from home i was booked and we're going to start off i believe by taking a look to see how they go on. chale has youngest ever coached on any call to tesco has turned back the clock on his side's fortunes this season the royal blue is on the verge of their highest league finish in eight years. but they were uncharacteristically sloppy at the start of this one almost gifting out fifteen

bogus and an early goal the icelandic strike aired tonight by the narrowest of margins. shall go workout just as our expects defense fall asleep. as cross comes short was flicked invitee low camera the defender left on martin oceans of space to back his second goal of the season. the tightness was clearly infectious a game called napping and this time they were punished by the quick thinking philip max. but parity lasted just seven minutes in bogus and the unfortunate man this carries had a rebounded off his style and into the net. and that was it for the goals going marker rishta here were denied a second equaliser by the assistant referees flak. it looked to be the right decision. i shall call it is that from the back right now they held on to victory

sealing second place in the spot in next season's champions league and before for the fence for the support us and i'm very happy for the for the team for each single player so it into lot for us to desk a shocker on the up and finishing above trifles dortmund's. i know for a lot of the i mean to disco deserves a huge amount of credit is that a brilliant on this isn't done really well it's true he was very inexperienced when he arrived he had previously been the head coach at a big hour but i was only for a rather short stint last season and then of course in the second division and now the money hired in the sporting director shaka christian harder has previous when it comes to placing his faith in quite young inexperienced managers he was the man who. mines hired you haven't shopped until mr ford so he obviously has a very good eye for picking a young coach and he's not afraid to put his faith in somebody without that much experience and he made a very good choice with dominique a total shock of going from tenth last season to second this time around and of

course as we heard in the report they finished above dormant and anyone who can do that is a favorite with fans that's pretty good showings there from one year to another in our time at the top of the table now what's happening at the bottom of the table yet of course all of the teams were in action yesterday as i said hamburg all spoken freiburg lost all of their games so that means that the relegation battle is only going to be decided finally on the last day of the season mites who were also volved in the dogfight down at the bar and had a big chance to save themselves if they got three points from dortmund that's no easy place to play anyway let's take a look and see how they go on. some don't and fans look like they already had their minds on the beach but for the most part the yellow wall was as imposing as ever was france and minds think alike the last time out meant they could secure their safety with a win at signal a do not park and after just three minutes they took the lead. scored on his debut last weekend and the midfielder repeated the trick here to make it one nil. the twenty year old clearly delighted to be his hometown club's hero

again. and pay attention because they got even worse just nine minutes later when the public had lost the sense in a teasing cross and yoshinori muchos glancing header found the corner of the net the japanese striker putting another season of top flight football within my reach . but they weren't home and dry yet jade insanitary tricked his way past daniel brzezinski and cross for maximillian philip to half the deficit he won with just fifteen minutes on the clock. that was enough excitement for meit's they shut up shop and reached halftime with their lead intact after the break they dug a defense kept dortmund's attack it by one. no chance did come home signs why in the ninetieth minute but my son's mountains had i was gobbled up by fall. and with that might seize bundesliga status was saying trust and his team have rescued themselves with two huge wins in two weeks

a tenth straight season in the top flight a whites. with all that was said a very very exciting last day of the season aren't we to we certainly all there is a lot still to be decided i mean if we have a look at the table we see of course that by munich and shall have guaranteed the champions league qualification for next year there are still two places to be filled but there are four teams chasing them so that's dortmund hoffenheim by leverkusen and abi like so that's going to be tight and of course the relegation battle at the bottom of the table as we mentioned is also yet to be decided freiburg well spoken hamburg are still in trouble and that's going right down to the wire so some big fixtures to look out for next weekend definitely all of the addresses tom again are from our sports department thanks very much watching d.w. news for you back at the top of the hour and till then you can get all the latest on our web site w dot com thanks for hanging in.

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