Lebanon opposition goes from protest to parliament
Reform-minded candidates ran without resources but still won over 200,000 votes
When Halime El Kaakour enters Lebanon’s parliament as a newly elected lawmaker next week, she will step past the same concrete barriers that security forces erected to keep her and other protesters out during massive anti-government rallies in 2019.
About a dozen activists and reform-minded newcomers like her were elected to the 128-member legislature on Sunday. “You don’t want us to enter parliament as normal citizens? You blocked us and put up walls? Well, now we’re entering as MPs,” Kaakour, who has a PhD in public international law and teaches at the Lebanese University, said.
Reform-minded candidates ran without the financial resources or staff of established factions, but still won more than 200,000 votes, second only to the powerful Hezbollah, gaining seats across Lebanon’s electoral districts and sects.
“People can’t believe it... We are planting hope, and God willing, we will harvest change,” said Kaakour, 46, and the only Sunni woman in parliament. The new candidates blame established parties for policies that unleashed an economic crisis that has pushed nearly three-quarters of Lebanon’s population under the poverty line and seen the local pound lose more than 90 per cent of its value.
“For more than 30 years, they have been saying the same things, while electricity and water and education were at rockbottom and they divided spoils and stole,” Kaakour said. “The priority now is to respond to people’s crisis of living... the battle is economic par-excellence.”
Eye surgeon plans to reform health care, public schools
Elias Jrade, an eye surgeon who won a seat in Hezbollah’s south Lebanon stronghold,said he would seek to reform the health care system, electricity woes and public schools.
Jrade unseated one of Lebanon’s longest-sitting MPs: 70-year-old Assaad Hardan, who had been in parliament for 30 years. The slender Christian Orthodox said he ran because of his daughter’s urge to join antigovernment demonstrations after the Beirut port blast of 2020, which many blame on safety failings by senior officials.
“I thought, shame on me. My 16-year-old daughter wants to protest to build a nation for me. That should be my duty,” he said. He spoke three days after the election, between back-toback operations at his Beirut clinic, which he said he intends to continue as MP.
“You’ll know I’ve betrayed you the minute I stop working here. I feed myself and others off the sweat of my brow - so if I stop working, I’ll be feeding off of the sweat of your brow instead,” said Jrade.
Like-minded newcomers have been meeting to align their positions, but Jradi said he preferred not to form a single party so each could continue to operate independently. Either way, Jrade said, he doesn’t plan to be in parliament for long.
“If in four years, I get asked to run again — that means I failed. I failed to prepare young people to take over, from every region, every faction, from the far-left to the far right.”
For more than 30 years, they have been saying the same things, while electricity and water and education were at rock-bottom and they divided spoils and stole. The priority now is to respond to people’s crisis.” Halime El Kaakour (left) | Newly elected lawmaker