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Fu­ture Move­ment won Sidon mu­nic­i­pal elec­tions

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Saad-Hariri LBC kalam ennasBEIRUT, Lebanon – The Fu­ture Move­ment won cru­cial mu­nic­i­pal elec­tions in Si­don , south Lebanon
Voter turnout dur­ing the peace­ful and smooth vot­ing in south Lebanon and Na­batieh reached 48.15 per­cent, In­te­rior Min­is­ter Nouhad Mash­nouk told a news con­fer­ence at his of­fice hours af­ter polls closed at 7 p.m.

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Saad Hariri, who made a pre­vi­ously unan­nounced visit to the south­ern city of Si­don Sun­day night, hailed the ma­jor vic­tory achieved by the Fu­ture­backed “De­vel­op­ing Si­don, Si­don For­ward,” headed by cur­rent Mayor Mo­ham­mad Saudi, even be­fore of­fi­cial re­sults were an­nounced.

“The new mu­nic­i­pal coun­cil headed by Mo­ham­mad Saudi will work for the fu­ture of Si­don. We are keen on Si­don’s de­vel­op­ment. Si­don is the cap­i­tal of the south,” Hariri told re­porters amid a large crowd of sup­port­ers who gath­ered at the res­i­dence of Shafic Hariri, the brother of the late for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Rafik Hariri, in Si­don.

Hariri’s aunt, Si­don’s MP Bahia Hariri, and for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Fouad Sin­iora were on hand to wel­come him.

Hariri said the mu­nic­i­pal and mukhtar elec­tions in Si­don car­ried “a po­lit­i­cal mes­sage” that the Fu­ture Move­ment ex­ists in all of Lebanon. “The Fu­ture Move­ment is the only move­ment that rep­re­sents all sects,” he said.

In re­sponse to a ques­tion, Hariri said the ma­jor po­lit­i­cal par­ties were us­ing the mu­nic­i­pal polls as a re­hearsal for next year’s par­lia­men­tary elec­tions and also to show­case their po­lit­i­cal base.

Hariri said he had opened “a new page” with his po­lit­i­cal ri­val, for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Na­jib Mikati. He dis­closed that he had agreed with Mikati dur­ing last week’s ice-break­ing meet­ing with him hosted by Prime Min­is­ter Tam­mam Salam on a con­sen­sus list to con­test the mu­nic­i­pal elec­tions in the north planned next Sun­day.

Saudi’s list faced tough com­pe­ti­tion from two ri­val tick­ets, one backed by the Pop­u­lar Nasserite Or­ga­ni­za­tion headed by for­mer Si­don MP Osama Saad, and another backed by an Is­lamist group.

Sun­day’s mu­nic­i­pal and mukhtar elec­tions in south Lebanon and Na­batieh came two weeks af­ter sim­i­lar polls were staged in Mount Lebanon, Beirut and the Bekaa Val­ley. The final round of mu­nic­i­pal elec­tions will take place in the north and Akkar on May 29.

Mash­nouk re­it­er­ated his call for the elec­tion of a pres­i­dent be­fore hold­ing par­lia­men­tary polls. He said that the coun­try’s po­lit­i­cal sys­tem has been stalled due to the ab­sence of a pres­i­dent.

Lebanon has been with­out a head of state since for­mer Pres­i­dent Michel Sleiman’s ten­ure ended in May 2014. Par­lia­ment has since been un­able to elect a suc­ces­sor due to a lack of quo­rum.

“The Le­banese sys­tem is stalled due to the ab­sence of a pres­i­dent rather than be­cause of the ex­ten­sion of Par­lia­ment’s man­date,” Mash­nouk said, re­fer­ring to the ex­ten­sion of Par­lia­ment’s term twice in 2013 and 2014. He warned that the talk about hold­ing par­lia­men­tary elec­tions be­fore the elec­tion of a pres­i­dent is a recipe for “a po­lit­i­cal clash” in the coun­try.

“Once a pres­i­dent is elected, par­lia­men­tary elec­tions can be held one or two weeks later,” Mash­nouk said.

He added that 60 per­cent of calls re­ceived by his min­istry’s hot­line for the elec­tions were from heads of polling sta­tions, 30 per­cent from cit­i­zens and 10 per­cent from an elec­tion mon­i­tor­ing group, the Le­banese As­so­ci­a­tion for Demo­cratic Elec­tions.

LADE re­leased a re­port say­ing that it recorded over 490 vi­o­la­tions in both the south Lebanon and Na­batieh gov­er­norates, most of which were in the Tyre and Na­batieh dis­tricts.

LADE said 22.9 per­cent of the vi­o­la­tions were recorded in the Si­don dis­trict, 37.7 per­cent in the Jezzine dis­trict and 39.2 per­cent in the Tyre dis­trict.

As for the Na­batieh gover­norate, 29.5 per­cent of the vi­o­la­tions recorded by LADE were in the Bint Jbeil dis­trict, 30.7 per­cent in the Has­baya and Mar­jay­oun dis­tricts com­bined and 39.5 per­cent in the Na­batieh dis­tricts.

LADE’s re­port said vi­o­la­tions were on­go­ing dur­ing the polls, in­clud­ing bribes, ram­pant chaos at polling sta­tions, pres­sure on vot­ers by op­pos­ing can­di­dates and can­di­dates cam­paign­ing on elec­tion day.

Although south Lebanon and Na­batieh are con­sid­ered to be the heart­land of the Amal Move­ment and Hezbol­lah, fam­i­lies and left­ist par­ties have formed can­di­date lists at­tempt­ing to chal­lenge the two groups’ es­tab­lished reign in sev­eral towns.

As in pre­vi­ous polls, over 20,000 mil­i­tary and se­cu­rity per­son­nel de­ployed heav­ily at polling sta­tions in the south to en­sure smooth and safe bal­lot­ing.

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24 responses to “Fu­ture Move­ment won Sidon mu­nic­i­pal elec­tions”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    ” Si­don is the cap­i­tal of the south,” …. Well it must be so, since no-one is getting their house re-bulit in Tripoli.

    1. Golyat Avatar
      Golyat

      Let me guess…you are an angry Tripoli man who left his home and decide to go live abroad forever!

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        I’m an ‘angry with asshole-world’ person … yes … but Not from Tripoli. Just have very good freinds who have and do suffer there GREATLY, due to the last 5+ years of insanity … although before that was a bit of a reach to say it was ‘wonderful’. AT least back then they had jobs and some peace.
        IF you had followed me in here, you would know the story – I won’t repeat it.
        But their slow death carries on, and no-one over there cares.

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          You should worry about the Fascist..other Jews are Sa-tu-ra-ted.

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    When it takes an army “to en­sure smooth and safe bal­lot­ing”, you KNOW things are NOT ‘smooth’.

  3. Y K Avatar
    Y K

    How much did the Amalohezbollahis get? What about the assorted scumbags such as the Baath, the SSNP and such? Were they even running? Was this election a political contest with national implications at all? The report leaves many questions unanswered.

    1. Golyat Avatar
      Golyat

      The only scumbags of Lebanon were kicked out long ago. They used to call themselves, “Guards of Cedars” or SLA. We call them traitors.

      1. Y K Avatar
        Y K

        “The only scumbags”??? Wow, Goliath, you are as dumb as your moniker suggests.
        P.S. The Guardians were indeed far too idealistic for Lebanon. Maybe it’s better that you’re stuck with the Berri the mafioso, Aoun the senile Napoleon and the ghost of Samir Kuntar.

        1. Golyat Avatar
          Golyat

          Tell me, how is it like when you live in a foreign country as a traitor? Or do you still live in Lebanon under the umbrella of the war criminal Geagea?

          1. Y K Avatar
            Y K

            Your concern for my well-being is really touching, mate. 🙂 But no worry, I got my own umbrella, no need for Geagea’s. As to being branded a “traitor” by the dregs of humanity from Hezbollah and SSNP, I would consider it a badge of honor. Can’t speak for the Guardians, though.

          2. Golyat Avatar
            Golyat

            “The Guardians” were not too idealistic for Lebanon. They were too unrealistic for Lebanon as an Arabic Levant country.

          3. Y K Avatar
            Y K

            Idealism and lack of realism usually go hand in hand, so there’s really no contradiction here, on the contrary.

          4. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            And of course, there ARE various arguments on that.
            There is nothing wrong with the concept of an ‘Ideal’, if logic is applied successfully to recognize a ‘reality’ at the same time. Striving for the Ideal may eventually change the Reality, by which it can come to exist, and then be measured as something else … which may only then be found not to be Ideal. Human ‘Spirit’ has evolved to seek an Ideal.
            (e.g. – I need something harder than this stone to chop wood … seek an ideal material.)
            Thinking always of an ‘Ability’ to wipe out as many humans as possible in as short a time as possible to ‘create’ a Supposed Nirvana for one ‘Ideality’, in Reality, is not an ‘Ideal’ concept of/for any human ‘Sprit’.
            http://www.britannica.com/topic/idealism

          5. Golyat Avatar
            Golyat

            Not exactly. Idealism implies unrealism. But unrealism does not necessarily imply idealism. The “guards” started unrealistic and based their “principles” on the imagination that Lebanon is located on another planet.

          6. Y K Avatar
            Y K

            The Guardians (and some other like-minded Christians) had an idealistic picture of Lebanon as a bulwark of (Western) civilization in a sea of barbarism. While in reality the barbarians of different strands (from the Nasrallahs to the Kuntars and the Hobeikas) had been inside the castle all the time. No wonder the outcome of the struggle was what it was.

          7. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            “(and some other like-minded Christians) had an idealistic picture of Lebanon as a bulwark of (Western) civilization in a sea of barbarism”.
            You cowards barbarians use children as human shields what are you doing here giving advise?

          8. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Y K is Zionst Israeli not a Lebanese he’s here to give us advise on Lebanese affairs

          9. Golyat Avatar
            Golyat

            I thought he’s SLA living abroad…anyway

          10. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            The worst is that he answers as a Lebanese..

          11. Y K Avatar
            Y K

            I answer you (if ever) as an orderly in a mental asylum. Which is way more than you deserve.

          12. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Y Khazar typical language..

            Hard times: Pro-Israel group will pay young Jews $100 to watch its movies
            http://mondoweiss.net/2016/05/israel-young-movies/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_c

          13. Y K Avatar
            Y K

            The last thing I’m here for is to give you and the likes of you “advise”. Piss on your face is more like it.

  4. Obraz do Pokoju Avatar
    Obraz do Pokoju

    I always look forward to your posts. This one, like the others, did not disappoint. Fantastic job!

  5. Obraz do Salonu Duży Avatar
    Obraz do Salonu Duży

    I’m consistently impressed by the quality of your writing. This post is another testament to your skill.

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