‘Powerless’ candidates set to take on dominant lists
By Adnan El-Ghoul
The Daily Star, Lebanon
18 May, 2005
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
On the campaign trail
BEIRUT: Former Premier Omar Karami, Zghorta MP Suleiman Franjieh,
General Michel Aoun and many other Lebanese politicians all seem
“powerless” in face of the present electoral alliances: Amal with
Hizbulllah, and Saad Hariri’s Future Movement with Walid Jumblatt’s
Progressive Socialist Party. Described as “bulldozers” by the Lebanese
public, these alliances, created collectively or separately, are
likely to prevent the possibility of genuine political reform in the
near future.
Nevertheless, many of these “powerless” candidates have decided to
meet the challenge in order to truly reflect the voters’ ambitions
and choices.
In Beirut, sitting MPs Adnan Araqji, Beshara Merhej and former MP
Najah Wakim will run in the elections and are looking for support
from Al-Jamaa al-Islamiyya, which has no candidate in Beirut.
To confront Hariri, these political figures and others will concentrate
on exploiting apparent “gaps” in the list, and may attempt to incite
excluded Beiruti families against Hariri.
Another plan might be to attack the Hariri list’s two controversial
Christian candidates, Gebran Tueni and Solange Gemayel, portraying
them as the wrong people for the job, especially given Gemayel’s
recent statement following her uncontested victory, where she claimed
to have won “thanks to Ghattas Khoury’s withdrawal.”
Gemayel declared at the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkirki that she would
not commit herself politically to Hariri’s parliamentary bloc, and
she reiterated her opposition to all those she considers “strangers”
– an old civil- war phrase that might be considered “provocative
language” to many Muslims. Critics say Gemayel should have waited
until Hariri’s list had passed the election test before making such
“embarrassing” statements.
The Armenian community in Beirut is also unsatisfied with Hariri’s
alliances, which “ignored the Armenian political groups and selected
uncommitted members from their community.” In a news conference,
the Tashnag Party called on members and supporters to boycott the
elections and “stay at home on May 29.”
In the North, the “opposition” alliance formed by the Future Movement,
Qornet Shehwan, the Lebanese Forces and the Tripoli Bloc is very
close to announcing a final list, with potential members posing for
photographers Tuesday.
In face of this “powerful” coalition, Karami and Franjieh are
still considering their “final changes” before announcing their list
Thursday. Aoun is expected to be the “envisioned rescuer” and Al-Jamaa
al-Islamiyya the “badly needed catalyst to making up the difference.”
In the South, independent candidates are running with little hope
of winning.
“We want to send a message, a political statement that we object to
the confiscation of the people’s will,” said one leftist activist.
The Democratic Forum and the Democratic Left Movement are to field a
limited list of candidates in Nabatieh’s second electoral district;
they are considering whether to include Nadim Salim from the Democratic
Renewal Bloc and Ziad Aswad of the Free Patriotic Movement.
The Communist Party and the Democratic Labor Party led by Elias Abu
Rizk are forming separate lists of left-wing politicians who seem
unable to unite even now, in these “hard times.”
The traditional Asaad family is also plagued by division, with a father
running against a son, and a distant cousin running against both.
Former Parliament Speaker Kamel al-Assad will compete for the Shiite
seat in the South’s second district with his son Ahmad and two other
candidates representing Amal and Hizbullah.
In the Chouf and Baabda-Aley, Aoun, Talal Arslan, Dory Chamoun’s
National Liberal Party and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party are
still struggling to conclude a meaningful alliance to oppose Jumblatt
and his alliance with the LF.