Beirut’s elections, bad law & stirring of emotions
By Elias Bejjani
Lebanon Wire, Canada
May 31 2005
Lebanon’s youth, pillars of the “Cedars Revolution” felt betrayed and
badly hurt while bitterly watching the unfair and biased parliamentary
election, the first round of which was conducted in Beirut on Sunday,
May 29, 2005. For the last fifteen years these heroes have been
persistently, peacefully and democratically struggling on almost a
daily basis against the Syrian occupation and its installed Lebanese
puppet regime.
They courageously refused to be subdued by the imposed Syrian
occupational status quo, maintained their strong faith and never lost
hope in the ultimate resurrection of their beloved Lebanon. Thousands
of them were arrested, harassed, tortured, persecuted, imprisoned
and suffered very serious consequences on all level and in all domains.
On March 14, 2005 in the aftermath of the assassination of the late
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, they hit the streets leading the biggest
peaceful demonstration ever known in Lebanon. More than one third of
Lebanon’s 3.5 million population followed the youth’s steps while the
majority of Lebanese politicians, political parties and clergy had
no choice but to take part in the demonstration and overtly adopt
the youth’s declared aims and objectives of freedom, liberation,
sovereignty and independence.
The outcome of the young people’s ongoing patriotic struggle was
rewarded and topped by the dream like end of the Syrian occupation,
the quick toppling of the Lebanese intelligence security apparatus of
oppression that was installed by the Syrians and by making Lebanon’s
independence and liberation a top priority for the free world
countries’ foreign policies after fifteen years of marginalization
throughout which Syria was occupying the country.
Meanwhile the Lebanese Diaspora’s Lobbyists played an extremely
pivotal role in advocating for Lebanon’s liberation, especially in
the USA through the “Syrian Accountability and Lebanon’s Sovereignty
Act of 2003”. This act made the American foreign policy shift toward
a free and liberated Lebanon. It paved the way for UN Resolution 1559
that forced the Syrian army to withdraw from Lebanon.
The electoral law “of the year 2000,” adopted in the current
election process was drawn by Syria in 2000 to favor its hand picked,
subservient Lebanese politicians. Applying this “made in Syria” law
is actually a criminal act committed against the heroic youth in
particular and against all the Lebanese in general. It is biased,
unfair, rejected by the majority of the Lebanese and provides no
equality at all for Lebanon’s multi-cultural communities to freely
elect their own representatives. It is a very odd and bizarre mechanism
that uses contradicting criteria.
Beirut’s Sunday elections carried to the Parliament nineteen MP’s,
all under Saad Hariri’s flag and on his three electoral tickets. Nine
of them won their seats uncontested (by acclamation), while the
other ten faced no serious challenges. The electoral law made it
possible for Saudi Arabia–in which Saad Hariri holds citizenship
in addition to his Lebanese one–to interfere openly, using its
financial, religious and international influences to clear the way
for Hariri and his tickets. All prominent Sunni runners withdrew,
while the Christian’s ten runners were handpicked by Hariri against
the will of their communities and in a very demeaning manner.
The Beirut election produced nineteen MP’s that do represent the
majority of the Beirutis. Only four percent of the Armenian community,
the second largest Beirut community after the Sunni population, cast
their votes; 11% of the Christian community participated at the polls
while only 28% of the total, potential 420,000 voters cast votes.
The oppression was holistic and hit not only the majority of
the Christian communities, but also the majority of the Muslim
communities. It was not an election process by any democratic criteria,
it was an appointment act empowered and controlled by petrol dollars
and public emotions. The killing of Rafik Hariri was used and abused by
the huge media facilities owned by Hariri (newspapers, radio stations
and TV stations), in a systematized, evil way to appeal to the Sunni
community and play on their emotions. They made this community feel
religiously obliged to vote for Hariri’s tickets.
The youth, as well as the majority of the Lebanese people, were hoping
to carry to the parliament actual representatives for their hopes,
aspirations, pains and dreams of change for the better. They were
viciously betrayed by the politicians who stood with each other to
maintain their power and protect their individual interests. Most of
these politicians were prominent pro-Syria candidates and in support of
its occupation. Now they changed their face masks and are camouflaging
a patriotic role.
The kind of elections that took place in Beirut last Sunday will be
replicated next Sunday in South Lebanon where the Shiite’s Hezbollah
party, the Shiite’s Amal Movement, the Druze Progressive Social Party
and their allies will carry 23 MP’s to the parliament in the second
round of election. Because of the twisted electoral law, they were
able to force their tickets on the people and handpick the runners.
The oppression inflicted on the Beiruti communities will also be
enforced on the Southern communities, especially the Christians whose
MP’s were selected by Hezbollah and Amal against their will.
What actually is positive in the midst of all this darkness is the fact
that this election, in spite of all its atrocities and infringements,
is taking place without the Syrian hegemony that has marked all the
other elections since 1990.
The new MP’s from Beirut who are practically appointed and not elected
will be held accountable by the people based on practicing their
legislative duties in addressing major national challenges; e.g.,
the disarmament of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, relations
with Syria, the Arab-Israeli conflict and its peace process, the
voting rights of the Lebanese Diaspora, the honoring of human rights,
economic reforms and last but not least the drawing up of a fair and
modern electoral law.
Although its Syrian occupation has ended, Lebanon still has a long
way to go before its people can actually enjoy democracy and freely
practice their rights, among which is voting.
Elias Bejjani *Human Rights activist, journalist & political
commentator. *Spokesman for the Canadian Lebanese Human Rights
Federation (CLHRF) *Media Chairman for the Canadian Lebanese
Coordinating Council (LCCC) E.Mail [email protected]