BEIRUT: Security tight for first phase of crucial Lebanon elections

The Daily Star, Lebanon
May 30 2005

Security tight for first phase of crucial Lebanon elections
Disabled voters made it through to cast their ballots despite no
recognition from government and a lack of help at polling stations

By Jessy Chahine
Daily Star staff
Monday, May 30, 2005

BEIRUT: On Sunday morning, Beirut resembled a giant barricade with
security tight across the capital for the first phase of the
four-round elections. However, after four hours of voting, barely one
in 10 voters had cast their ballot despite opposition calls for a
high turnout.

“For me, this day will concretize all what we demonstrated for on
March 14 in Martyrs’ Square,” said Abu Ali, a campaign delegate for a
voting poll in Mosseitebeh, “even if we do not agree on the current
electoral law, even if we do not agree on the current electoral
machinery, voting is the only way out for us to put an end to all
this.”

Abu Ali said: “Unfortunately,” Beirutis were “unaware of this.”

In the first election not under Syrian or Lebanese intelligence
control and free from pressure on the voters’ choice, many Beirutis –
mainly Christians – felt reluctant to take part in the election
process on Sunday.

“I’m not going to vote,” said Elias Hajal. “What for? I’d rather go
to the beach. We already know who has won and who hasn’t, even before
the election process started.”

However, other voters described the current elections as “historical”
and “mandatory for the winds of change to come.”

“Now that the Syrians are gone, there is no pressure,” said Kamal
Badran, a 52-year-old butcher who voted for Saad Hariri’s list.

Giant pictures of the slain former Premier Rafik Hariri with his son
and random posters of independent candidates filled the streets of
Beirut, with campaign banners reading “the truth,” referring to the
public demand to uncover the culprits behind Hariri’s assassination,
posted outside some polling stations.

However, disabled Lebanese who had to vote in other polling stations
still had to face many obstacles, most notably the presence of
numerous stairs in every polling station.

Disabled voters’ access to polling stations was as hard as ever,
despite an exemplary polling station set up for disabled voters in
Makassed Harj High School in Beirut’s first district.

“I had to be carried to the sixth floor to vote,” said Rima Najjar,
36. “People were fighting over who would carry me up, but were much
less enthusiastic about bringing me down later on.”

Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa, when approached by a disabled woman
demanding that the government rectify the situation for the 900
disabled eligible to vote in Beirut, said: “I wasn’t aware of that
presence.”

Others, mainly members of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the
Armenian Tachnag Party – both of whom boycotted the elections –
roamed the streets of Beirut, especially Achrafieh, singing patriotic
hymns of “freedom,” carrying posters of General Michel Aoun and
distributing leaflets reading “do not vote.”

“What is taking place now are not ‘elections,’ they are merely
‘nominations,'” said Paul Achkar, an FPM supporter, “everything has
been planned in advance, they’re only making us believe these
elections are democratic. They’re not.”

Taking place a month after the last Syrian soldier left Lebanon, the
polls were being staged under international supervision for the first
time with over 100 European Union and UN observers on the ground.

White cars bearing large stickers with the logo of the EU and the
words “international observers” were seen touring the streets of
Beirut, checking the various polling stations.

The presence of other local volunteer observers, belonging to the
Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE), was also a
first for Lebanon.

“For the first time, we were granted permission by the Interior
Ministry to access the polls and our observers were allowed in there,
to closely follow up and monitor the elections process,” said Ziyad
Baroud, LADE’s secretary general.

Nevertheless, some continued to complain at pressure being exerted on
them not to vote.

“A man called me at home this morning asking me not to vote,” said
Abraham, a voter preferred not to give his last name, “and my
neighbors were given false tickets featuring the names of candidate
who have already won unopposed.”

Ayman, a LADE volunteer, said this kind of fraud was not the
responsibility of the observer teams.

“People know how to read and write, don’t they?” he said, “so they
can distinguish a legitimate ticket from an illicit one.”
From: Baghdasarian