By Najia Houssari -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian has used his Eid Al-Fitr sermon to warn Sunnis against the danger of abstaining from participating in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Lebanon on May 15. In an address held at Al-Amin Mosque in the heart of Beirut, he told a crowd that included several Sunni candidates that “abstaining is the magic formula for corrupt people to come to power.” His warning comes after international observers said that Sunnis abstaining from the vote will allow the “growing influence of Hezbollah and its allies from the Sunni sect, through the winning of the party’s loyalists or its allies.The lower the turnout to the elections, the easier it becomes for Hezbollah to win in the Sunni areas.”

Derian’s remarks came as Eid Al-Fitr was celebrated amid a crippling financial hardship that has plagued the whole country. President Michel Aoun tweeted his greetings on the Islamic holiday: “May those with good converge toward the supreme interest of the nation to reach safety.” He added: “Let this feast be an invitation to all to rise above immediate interests and realize national hopes and ambitions for the advancement and recovery of our homeland.” Prime Minister Najib Mikati wished for “Lebanon to recover as fast as possible through everyone’s efforts and positive cooperation, as this is the only choice.” He added: “The repetition of mistakes is a crime, and the worst crimes are the ones committed against the homeland, under the pretext of defending it.”

Derian, the highest authority in Sunni Islam in the country, spoke on Monday on the grounds that “the enthusiasm of Sunnis in voting is declining” due to “people’s disgust from the ruling class and the poverty it led to,” an official in Dar Al-Fatwa told Arab News. They added: “The ‘Future Movement’ and its loyalists are some of the people abstaining from voting, despite former Prime Minister Saad Hariri not demanding boycotting the elections. However, they related to his decision for the movement to abstain from participating in the elections, on the level of candidacy and endorsement of candidates. They decided to abstain from voting due to their lack of conviction in Hariri’s replacements.”

Harissa (Agenzia Fides) - If the Lebanese really want to protect their right to self-determination and distance the future of the country from the groups that intend to cause the collapse of Lebanon and erase its historical identity, they must participate massively in the legislative elections on 16 of May. The appeal comes from Lebanese Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, who made these considerations on the relevance of the upcoming elections in his homily on Sunday, May 1, during the solemn Eucharistic liturgy presided over in the Shrine of Our Lady of Harissa.

In his homily, the Patriarch explained that the majority of Lebanese want to live in "a free, democratic and neutral Lebanon", as provided for by the Constitutional Charter and the national historical identity itself. For this reason, all Lebanese are called upon to take advantage of their right to vote also "to tell the world which Lebanon they want", and to make it clear to world and regional powers that the Lebanese people reject any geopolitical plan aimed at expropriating or mortgage the independence of the Lebanese nation. In the immediate term, the Patriarch has recalled the urgency of safeguarding an orderly and peaceful development of the last weeks of the electoral campaign, after the various incidents that in recent weeks have disturbed the fragile social order.

  percentage of votes by parties in 2018 — source

By Dario Sabaghi -- al-monitor.com -- The blast at Beirut Port on Aug. 4, 2020, not only left more than 215 dead and 6,000 injured, but also changed the skyline of Lebanon's capital. For many Lebanese, the ruined grain silos are a memorial for the blast's victims and a testament to the negligence of their political establishment. The forensic investigation was halted for the fifth time in February 2022. No one has yet been held accountable almost two years after the explosion of 552 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. On April 14, 2022, the Lebanese government approved plans to demolish the grain silos.

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makari told the local media that the government had appointed the Council for Development and Reconstruction to oversee the demolition process. He did not specify a time frame. Makari said that the government made the decision based on a report by Lebanon's Khatib and Alami Engineering Company, which warned that the silos might collapse within months and that it would be too expensive to repair them. Culture Minister Mohamed Mortada told Reuters the government had decided to demolish the silos and build new ones based on a "purely economic assessment" of Lebanon's food security needs, including wheat storage.