TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) – Azzam al-Jassem delayed casting his ballot in Lebanon’s general elections on Sunday to the last minute, waiting “for whoever pays more” to secure his vote and those of his family.
Taking refuge from a merciless sun with his cousins inside a makeshift kiosk he rented for the elections, Jassem said he had turned down offers ranging between $5,000 and $7,000 for the 100 votes his family commands.
“Buying a goat would cost $100,” he told Reuters. “My vote should not be cheaper than a goat.”
Allegations of vote-buying have marred the last round of Lebanon’s general elections in the north, where more than 100 candidates vie for the remaining 28 parliament seats.
In Lebanon’s first election in three decades without a Syrian military presence, an anti-Syrian list backed by Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri is squaring off against an unlikely alliance of pro-Syrians and Damascus’ erstwhile foe, Maronite Christian former general Michel Aoun.
Both campaigns have denied vote-buying. However, many people Reuters interviewed in the coastal town of Tripoli said campaigners from both slates offered them money for their votes.