source: Lebanonfiles — أفادت معلومات مستقاة من الماكينات الانتخابية الحزبية ان الثنائي الشيعي يتقدم بشكل كبير في الجنوب الثانية، أما في الجنوب الثالثة فلائحة المعارضة أصواتها مرتفعة. وفي الشمال الثانية افيد عن حصول لائحة أشرف ريفي على 3 حواصل ولائحة كرامي على حاصلين وقدامى المستقبل على حاصل واحد ولائحة ميقاتي على حاصلين، وبينت النتائج الاولية […]

By Laila Bassam, Timour Azhari and Maya Gebeily —

BEIRUT, May 16 (Reuters) – Iran-backed Hezbollah has been dealt a blow in Lebanon’s parliamentary election with preliminary results showing losses for some of its oldest allies and the Saudi-aligned Lebanese Forces party saying it had gained seats. With votes still being counted, the final make-up of the 128-member parliament has yet to emerge. The heavily armed Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah and its allies won a majority of 71 seats when Lebanon last voted in 2018. The current election is the first since Lebanon’s devastating economic meltdown blamed by the World Bank on ruling politicians after a huge port explosion in 2020 that shattered Beirut.

One of the most startling upsets saw Hezbollah-allied Druze politician Talal Arslan, scion of one of Lebanon’s oldest political dynasties who was first elected in 1992, lose his seat to Mark Daou, a newcomer running on a reform agenda, according to the latter’s campaign manager and a Hezbollah official. Initial results also indicated wins for at least five other independents who have campaigned on a platform of reform and bringing to account politicians blamed for steering Lebanon into the worst crisis since its 1975-90 civil war. Whether Hezbollah and its allies can cling on to a majority hinges on results not yet finalised, including those in Sunni Muslim seats contested by allies and opponents of the Shi’ite movement.

by lebanondebate.com — بدأت عملية فرز الأصوات، وأتَت نتيجة فرز الأصوات وفق ماكينة المُرشّح فريد هيكل الخازن على الشكل التالي:-في جبيل: نسبة الإقتراع 64%– في كسروان: نسبة الإقتراع من 68 إلى 69 %.وأرقام النائب فريد هيكل الخازن حتى الآن 7577 في كسروان، وهي نتيجة جيّدة للوصول إلى الحاصل بإنتظار نتائج أقلام إقتراع دائرة جبيل بالتفصيل.

by news.middleeast-24.com — Former US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker talks about the US role in accelerating the financial collapse in Lebanon, and Washington’s vision for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Former US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker Ahead of the parliamentary elections in Lebanon, the former US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Schenker, made dangerous statements about the American role played by the administration of former President Donald Trump in the country in order to accelerate the financial collapse, and about the administration’s exploitation of the “October 17” movement in order to distort The image of Hezbollah and its weakening with its allies.

During a symposium conducted by the Washington Institute under the title “Hezbollah and Shiites Dynamics and Lebanon’s Elections: Challenges, Opportunities, and Political Implications,” Schenker stated that during the Trump era, his country “imposed sanctions on Hezbollah’s financial institutions and on the Jammal Bank, and proceeded to synchronize this immediately after the establishment of the Agency.” Moody’s credit rating downgrades Lebanon’s credit rating. He added, “We were the ones behind the decision to lower Lebanon’s credit rating, and the Trump administration was keen to synchronize the announcement of the downgrade with its imposition of sanctions on the Beauty Bank, which was imposed at that time the next day immediately.” He pointed out, in this context, that “Washington not only did this to this extent, but also imposed sanctions on Hezbollah’s ally, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil.”

by AFP — Lebanese activists on Friday rolled out mock banknotes featuring paintings of a gutted central bank or the Beirut port explosion to denounce high-level corruption that has helped to wreck the country. The dollars stuck in accounts that citizens can only withdraw in Lebanese pounds at a fraction of their original value are […]

By Tamara Qiblawi, CNN — Beirut, Lebanon (CNN)The coastal highway that connects Lebanon’s northern-most tip to the country’s south is peppered with gaping potholes. The stench of landfill hangs in the air as emaciated men rummage through dumpsters, their faces smudged with dirt. Towering above the wreckage wrought by nearly three years of economic collapse are endless rows of election billboards. Some show relatively unfamiliar candidates fielded by new political groups. But most display the looming faces of politicians from decades-old sectarian parties. Nearly all of the campaign slogans promise “change.” The irony is not lost on anyone in a country where negligence by the political elite nearly destroyed the capital in the biggest non-nuclear explosion in history.

Lebanon’s soul has been eviscerated by its financial crisis. Not even the children want to play On Sunday, Lebanese citizens will vote for a new parliament for the first time since an October 2019 uprising demanded the fall of a century-old political order. The path to political change has been rife with challenges, and whether this year’s election will deliver a new political makeup is far from certain. But this is a moment of reckoning for Lebanon’s political elite. The establishment they represent is a microcosm of the region’s decades-old fault lines, pitting groups backed by the archrivals Iran and Saudi Arabia against each other. Change in Beirut’s political order could mark a first step in extricating the country from its hodgepodge of proxy conflicts, and produce a ripple effect in a region where protest movements have so far failed to effect political change.

By Heba Nasser in Sour, Lebanon — middleeasteye.net — The electoral aesthetic across south Lebanon is a glaring display of the deep-rooted dominance of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement. All along highways and side roads, the serene faces of Shia leaders and their candidates look on from posters as people drive deeper southward. “Your trust is our responsibility,” proclaims one slogan perched high at the entrance of Abbasiyeh, a town a handful of kilometres away from Lebanon’s southern coast. There’s no question that the Shia heavyweight parties are predicted to win the majority of votes in south Lebanon on Sunday. But a lot has changed in the four years since Lebanon’s last elections: a popular uprising and catastrophic economic collapse, to name a few. That upheaval has led to rumblings of dissatisfaction across Hezbollah and Amal’s stronghold, and the parties themselves have taken notice.

Despite their assured electoral hold, for weeks now the parties have been contacting southern constituents – even those most loyal to them – to ensure that they will be voting on Sunday, in a push never seen previously. But like all parties that make up the oligarchy that has run Lebanon into the ground, they are increasingly associated with the country’s breakdown, and many in the south have started expressing disenchantment with the factions they have traditionally supported and repeatedly voted for. How that dissatisfaction is expressed is another matter. Lebanese voters have a habit of calling for change only to vote for their traditional parties when at the polling booth. Yet many southerners told Middle East Eye that faced with today’s corruption, stasis, and economic meltdown, they plan to boycott or cast blank ballots.

سجعان قزي

@AzziSejean

أخيرًا بَقّهَا السيد حسن نصرالله: “الجنوبُ والبقاعُ والشمالُ وعكّار أطرافٌ تَـمَّ إلحاقُها بلبنانَ الكبير عامَ 1920” (09 أيار 2022). لكنَّ سماحتَه تناسى أمرين: الأوّل أنَّ هذه المناطقَ استُعيدَت ولم يَتِم السطوُ عليها وإلحاقُها بالقوّة بلبنان. والثاني، وهو سابقٌ ومُتمِّمٌ للأوّل: أنَّ المجلسَ التمثيليَّ اللبنانيَّ، المتعدِّدَ الطوائفِ المسيحيّةِ والإسلاميّةِ، اتّخذَ في أيّار 1919 قرارًا طالبَ به مؤتمرَ الصُلحِ المنعَقِدَ في باريس “الاعترافَ باستقلالِ لبنان في حدودِه الطبيعيّة”.

إنَّ التشكيكَ بوِحدةِ الأمّةِ اللبنانيّة يُوحي بأنَّ الكِيانَ اللبنانيَّ مصطنَعٌ ومركَّبٌ وفاقدُ الشرعيّةِ التاريخيّة ومُحلَّلٌ تفكيكُه. نَفهم الآنَ أكثرَ لماذا يَرفضُ حزبُ الله وسوريا ترسيمَ الحدودِ اللبنانيّةِ/السوريّةِ وضبطَها. إذا كان الأمرُ كذلك، لِــمَ ولِمَن استُشِهدَ أطيبُ شبابِ الجنوبِ والبقاع؟ وما قيمةُ مقاومتِك، يا سيد حسن، لتحريرِ الجَنوب والبقاع الغربي؟ وما لكَ ولنا بعدُ بمزارعَ شِبعا وتِلالِ كفرشوبا؟ وما لكَ ولنا بمربّعاتِ النفطِ والغاز في بحرِ الجَنوب؟ أَرْجِعْ هذه المناطق إلى سوريا لتَتمتّع بربوعِ الشام ونسيمِ البِردَوْني، ودَعْ سوريا تُقاوم في سبيلِها مثلما قاومَت لاسترجاعِ الجولان.

وطنية – دان “لقاء الجمهورية” في بيان، “جريمة اغتيال المراسلة الإعلامية في قناة الجزيرة الشهيدة شيرين أبو عاقلة عن سابق تصور وتصميم أثناء قيامها بواجبها المهني وتغطيتها الاقتحام الاسرائيلي لمخيم جنين”.  واعتبر ان “إسرائيل مسؤولة عن هذه الجريمة بما لا يقبل الجدل، وهذا اعتداء إسرائيلي على الجسم الاعلامي ككل، يجب ألّا يمر من دون تدخل […]

By Najia Houssari — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: With Lebanon’s crucial parliamentary elections on Sunday expected to go down to the wire, candidates and party supporters have been accused of trying to buy their way to victory by offering cash bribes to undecided voters. A Shiite voter in Beirut’s second constituency told Arab News that he had been offered $300 if he and his family agreed to vote for a particular businessman. The man, who asked to be identified only as Mohammed, said: “Supporters campaigning for their parties call me every day to ask who I will be voting for. I have no idea how they got my number. Some offer ration cards, others money, to either vote for them, or even boycott the elections or cast a blank ballot.” Mohammed, who has no links with the Amal Movement or Hezbollah, said he is unlikely to vote. “All the parties in power had the opportunity to fulfill their promises, but they have left their people mired in their misery. We will not re-elect them.”

Electoral bribery has long been a problem in Lebanon, despite laws banning the practice, but has become more widespread and visible with the collapse of the national currency and decline in living conditions. Now, if rumors from the money exchange black market are to be believed, the exchange rate will drop ahead of the elections as parties attempt to buy votes using US currency. One money changer, who declined to be named, told Arab News: “Electoral spending is expected to rise during the next few days as parties attempt to buy the largest number of votes, through direct bribes.” People in Beirut have reported that money changers have been stopping passers-by in the street to ask if they want to exchange their dollars.