Election fever in short supply in Deir al-Ahmar
Town”s Christians will see their representatives chosen by Shiites
Deir al-Ahmar has not caught Lebanon”s election fever. While citizens across the country anxiously await the results of Sunday”s pivotal parliamentary polls, the residents of Deir al-Ahmar have little hope their voices will heard be through the ballot box. Some have even refused to vote.
The town”s displeasure with the current electoral framework can be seen on the streets.
In predominantly Shiite Baalbeck, several kilometers east of the town, the roadsides are strewn with posters, flags and billboards for Hizbullah. To the west, over the towering Lebanon range, massive portraits of Lebanese Forces” candidates punctuate the Christian towns of the Qadisha valley.
In Deir al-Ahmar there are no such electoral decorations.
The people of the town – and other Christian villages in the northern Bekaa”s Baalbeck-Hermel district – already know that the deputies designated to represent their confessional communities will not be elected by them.
"The [new] electoral law gives an upper hand in the rural areas of Lebanon, in the Bekaa, the North, as well as the South, to the majority represented by one religion," says Talal Makdessi, a well-known businessman and activist, who comes from Deir al-Ahmar.
Makdessi provides an example: If the district”s Christians and Sunnis, voting populations of about 35,000 apiece, were to pool their ballots, they still could not compete with the area”s Shiite vote, numbering about 180,000.
This is unfortunate, Makdessi says, because relations and reconstruction projects in the area were "extremely positive" until the election period started.
This is not the only case of a community feeling slighted by the current electoral system, which guarantees Christians and Muslims an equal share of Parliament. In certain districts in the South, like Tyre, Shiite votes functionally count for less than Christian votes in districts like Keserwan.
Deir al-Ahmar, nonetheless, stands as a clear example.
Makdessi notes that the town and others, like Ainata and Shleefa, have traditionally supported the Lebanese Forces (LF), a member of the ruling March 14 coalition. But although the LF”s Michel Salloum (Catholic) is running in the district, as is March 14″s Shawqi Fakhry (Maronite), the opposition”s candidates for the district”s two Christian seats, Emile Rahme and Marwan Fares, are all but guaranteed victory.
"The electoral law is of course unfair to the Christians in the area," says Dr. Hanna Khoury, also of Deir al-Ahmar. "We”ve been trying to rectify these gaps … but nothing was done."
"The Christian electoral seats are imposed by Hizbullah because the Christians represent 15 percent of the population," he adds.
Rumors and reports have spread that residents of the town and other Christian villages in the area would boycott the vote to voice their displeasure, but Makdessi notes that he has encouraged friends and colleagues to vote. And Khoury says he expects residents, for the most part, to take part in the polls.
Interestingly, the Shiite villagers of Knaise, north of Baalbeck, have threatened a complete boycott of the elections because of what they call government neglect of the town”s development needs.
Rather than boycotting, Makdessi supports substantive electoral reform. "As of the 8th of June, we should start looking for a new electoral law," he says. "It should be one person one vote."
However, he adds, that any candidate that is elected to represent a certain community, but fails to win more than 25 percent of that community”s vote, should not be able to serve.