middle-east-online.
BEIRUT – Lebanese headed to the polls
for first time in six years on Sunday for municipal elections including
in Beirut, where a new grassroots campaign is taking on entrenched
parties.
It is the first election of any kind in
Lebanon since the last municipal polls in 2010, in a country that has
not had a president for the past two years nor voted for a parliament
since 2009.
Voters were trickling in to polling
stations in Beirut and in two provinces of the Bekaa region in the first
stage of a vote to last until May 29 in five other provinces.
In
Beirut, an unlikely alliance of citizens is for the first time
challenging traditional politicians like former prime minister Saad
Hariri, whose Future Movement usually dominates elections in the
capital.
Beirut Madinati, or Arabic for “Beirut is my
city”, emerged after civil society gained momentum in protests last
summer over a political crisis that saw trash pile up on streets.
Coming out of a polling station in Beirut, a 43-year-old voter who only gave his name as Elie was enthusiastic.
Three killed in election violence in Lebanon
Daily Star.com.lb
The Bekaa Valley and Baalbek-Hermel districts witnessed heated battles between rival parties running for local
elections, with three people being treated at hospitals after scuffles
broke out in Zahle.
TV footage showed a scuffle at a polling
station in Zahle between supporters of the Lebanese Forces, people who
back the Fattoush list, and the supporters of the Skaff family’s Popular
Bloc over the vote-buying allegations.A similar incident occurred at an office of the Popular Bloc, after LF supporters reportedly stormed into it.
“I’m still waiting for the Lebanese Forces to explain what happened. I call on people to try to protect the democratic way we should all follow,” Popular Bloc head Myriam Skaff told reporters.
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Lebanese Head to the Polls in First Round of Municipal Elections
BEIRUT (Sputnik) — The first round of municipal elections kicked off on Sunday in Lebanon, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
Residents are choosing lawmakers to be represented in local governments
of the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek-Hermel provinces in eastern Lebanon
as well as in Beirut. Supporters of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad
Hariri and independent civil society activists are struggling for the
victory. The elections will last until May 29 in five other provinces
of Lebanon.
“Municipal elections are a privilege of the
people, this is the essence of our democracy. We hope that this will
also affect the rest; first and foremost, the presidential election,”
Prime Minister Tammam Salam said, after casting his vote in Beirut.
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Lebanese hope for change in first vote after trash crisis
By PHILIP ISSA Associated Press
BEIRUT
Lebanon’s capital on Sunday will hold its first elections
since a months-long trash crisis left mountains of garbage festering in
the streets, with an outsider group of candidates challenging a
political establishment widely seen as corrupt and incompetent.
Beirut Madinati, Arabic for “Beirut, My City,” has vowed to clean up the city’s streets – and its politics. “We
will go to the polls and throw out the corrupt politicians,” declared
list leader Ibrahim Mneihmneh, a 40-year-old architect, at a recent
rally attended by hundreds of people. “We will no longer whine about the
trash, traffic, or corruption.”
Polling stations for the
municipal election will be open on Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (0400
GMT to 1600 GMT). Results are expected as early as Monday.
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One of the most painful lessons ever learned in finance has finally come to politics
Myles Udland
Back in 1998, the world of finance learned a very painful lesson: Models break and markets aren’t efficient. And with the rise of Donald Trump from sideshow to presumptive Republican nominee, politics has learned the same lesson. Long-Term Capital Management was a hedge fund staffed by several
Nobel Prize winners that possessed a supposedly unmatched grasp on how
markets work. The firm had the most sophisticated methods for exploiting
any and all inefficiencies, millions and millions of times over. And it
blew up.Spectacularly.
Chronicled at length in Roger Lowenstein’s brilliant book “When Genius Failed,” the short version of LTCM’s blowup is that a series of misplaced bets that certain interest rates would converge over time — because they always had in the past — went against the firm until they were out billions of dollars.
LTCM’s core conceit was that it believed markets were efficient and any inefficiencies would be corrected in due course. They were wrong.
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Lebanon debates controversial electoral law again
Gulfnews by Joseph A. Kechichian – Beirut: After it was widely criticised in 2013, the Lebanese joint
parliamentary committees convened on Tuesday to study various electoral
drafts and settled on the so-called “Orthodox Gathering Electoral Law”
for serious consideration.
Under the controversial proposal, an
expansion of parliamentary seats would be recorded — from 128 to 134 —
along with a complex pattern that would allow each of Lebanon’s 18
officially recognised religious communities to elect their own deputies.
The
proportional representation system will consider the country as a
single district. Consequently, the draft stipulates that each sect will
vote for its own representatives, with registered Shiite voters only be
able to vote for Shiite candidates, Sunnis for Sunnis, Maronites for
Maronites, and so on.
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