MUDSLINGING AHEAD OF LEBANON VOTE
Maktoob
004661/Mudslinging_ahead_of_Lebanon_vote/Article.h tm
June 3 2009
With just days to go before Lebanon’s general election, mudslinging is
at a peak as candidates trade insults touching on religion, corruption
and even each other’s personal lives.
One candidate calling an opponent "a thief" on national television and
another accusing a contender of spying for Israel, all is fair game
in the battle pitting a Western-backed faction against a Hezbollah-led
alliance supported by Iran and Syria.
"I would say that it’s crunch time, do-or-die, go-for-broke," said
Elias Muhanna, editor of the political blog Qifa Nabki. "You might
as well sling all the mud you can before Sunday."
And sling the mud they have before the June 7 vote – on billboards,
television talk shows, campaign rallies and in private meetings
secretly caught on tape.
One audio-recording broadcast on television has an official badmouthing
the country’s Armenian community, whose main political bloc has
decided to support Hezbollah’s faction during the election.
"F— the Armenians," the official is overheard saying in the
recording. "What do they have to do with us?"
Candidate Nayla Tueni, 26, was in the hot seat this week after a
rumour that she had converted to Islam spread like wildfire.
Tueni, a Greek Orthodox who is seeking to fill the seat left by her
slain father Gebran Tueni, was forced to go on air to refute the
allegation, even displaying a document showing she had not renounced
her faith.
Religion plays a key role on all levels in Lebanon and the country’s
top government positions and the 128 seats in parliament are allocated
along confessional lines.
The president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a
Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shiite Muslim.
Seats in parliament are equally divided between Christians and Muslims.
Mudslinging in the run-up to the vote has not been restricted to
political foes with even allies slamming each other.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a member of the ruling majority,
was recently red-faced over remarks he made during a meeting with
religious leaders of his community during which he denigrated his
Maronite Christian allies, calling them a "bad breed".
Jumblatt later downplayed his comments saying they were unintentional
and taken out of context.
With tempers running high, some political leaders have not spared
their own constituents.
A video making the rounds on television and on YouTube has Christian
leader Sleiman Franjieh, who is allied with Hezbollah, calling a
group of his followers "dogs" and "donkeys" as he warns them to
refrain from violence on election day.
"I have 30,000 idiots in this village, that’s what I have," an angry
Franjieh is seen telling a small crowd in his stronghold of Zgharta,
in northern Lebanon. "If one of you dares raise his fist (during the
election), you’ll have to answer to me."