Lebanese to vote for change on March 27
POLITICIANS CONTINUE TO SCUTTLE BITAR’S ATTEMPTS TO FIX ACCOUNTABILITY FOR PORT BLAST
Lebanon’s parliament voted yesterday to hold legislative elections on March 27, 2022, giving Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government only a few months to try to secure an IMF recovery plan amid a deepening economic meltdown.
The early election date — elections were originally expected to be held in May — was chosen to avoid clashing with Ramadan.
The currency has lost 90 per cent of its value and three-quarters of the population have been pushed into poverty amid shortages of fuel and medicine.
Mikati met Mahmoud Mohieldin, an executive director of the IMF in Beirut yesterday, and stated that “we hope to complete a cooperation programme before the end of this year”.
Beirut blast probe
A row over the probe into last year’s Beirut port blast is threatening to veer Mikati’s cabinet off course.
Last Thursday, Beirut witnessed the worst street violence in over a decade with seven people killed in gunfire when protesters from the Hezbollah and Amal movements demonstrated against investigating judge Tarek Bitar, who has named several ministers allied to them.
They may often squabble, but Lebanon’s political parties seem united in rejecting an investigation into Beirut’s massive port explosion that they fear could threaten their survival, analysts say.
Months into a domestic investigation, no one has been held accountable. Politicians have repeatedly obstructed the work of judge Tarek Bitar by refusing to show up for questioning, filing legal complaints against him or calling for his dismissal, which last week sparked deadly violence in the heart of Beirut.
Analyst Lina Khatib said hopes were fading of holding those responsible for the port blast accountable.
“The ruling class in Lebanon is in agreement about wanting the port probe to be abandoned and they will use all available means to derail it,” said Khatib, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the Chatham House think tank.
A battle for rule of law
Nadim Houry, executive director at the Arab Reform Initiative, said that the whole ruling class felt under threat in what he described as “an essential battle in Lebanon for rule of law”.
“A section of society has decided that they want to go all the way and ask for truth,” but they face “a political class that is willing to use threats, use violence, use even launching into another civil war to prevent that quest for truth from leading to a result,” he said.
Families of the victims see in Bitar the only hope for justice in a country where impunity has long been the norm.
While political parties have publicly supported an investigation, analysts say they ultimately wish to protect their own interests. “Lebanon’s ruling class may be political opponents but they are united in profiteering from the system... and they therefore oppose any steps to reform it or to instil accountability within it,” Khatib said.
A spokesman for the families of blast victims quit on Saturday, after many feared he had been intimidated into toeing the Hezbollah line and calling for Bitar to step down.
Ebrahim Hoteit, who lost his brother in the explosion, lives in a Shiite-majority neighbourhood. The day after Thursday’s Beirut bloodshed, many refrained from taking part in a protest to mark the second anniversary of the now-defunct 2019 protest movement, fearing further violence.
“Ultimately, the ruling class want to push the Lebanese to conclude that the price of accountability is too high,” Khatib said.