Elections Carry Challenges Of Tolerance for All Factions
In an interview with Kuwaiti daily al-Anbaa to be published on Wednesday, Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra said that maintaining security and calm during the upcoming parliamentary elections was not only the responsibility of the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Internal Security Forces, but that of the Lebanese people as well.
Carrying out democratic, peaceful and civilized elections would be a great challenge but would prove each faction’s tolerance of the others, he said.
Zahra said that March 14 “cautiously” relied on all the statements issued by March 8 figures in which they affirmed their commitment to holding the elections on time.
He called on the military and security forces’ leaders to be alert to any attempts at threatening or intimidating people before or during the elections, adding that the March 14 alliance would carry itself during the polling with high morals and a unified vision.
Zahra also said that those who doubted large-scale Christian participation in Saturday’s Hariri commemoration were refusing the truth and had been living a “four-year-long illusion.” They didn’t believe in the polls or in the results of the labor, syndicate and student elections, he told the paper.
Zahra also said he regretted the killing of Lutfi Zeineddine by March 8 partisans following the Hariri rally over the weekend. He also asked about the fate of MEA employee Joseph Sader, who was kidnapped on his way to work at the Beirut International Airport last Thursday “in a so-called security zone that belongs to particular parties,” a reference to Hezbollah’s privately-policed areas.
Zahra questioned the state’s authority in the area, “especially since the kidnapping occurred only few meters away from military and security forces at the scene.”