Municipal elections are not negotiable

A Lebanese woman shows her ink-stained thumb after casting her vote at a polling station in Saadnayel, in the eastern Bekaa valley, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

The Lebanese Cabinet is expected to discuss the issue of proposed reforms to Municipal Elections at today’s dialogue session in Baabda.

Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s draft amendments are expected to “draw controversy,” although for the life of me I cannot understand why. Baroud, ever the pragmatist, has come up with a list of changes that parliament should pass before the forthcoming Municipal vote, which is meant to be held before May 2010 – we’ll come to this in a minute.

Baroud has taken the safest possibly avenue in order to press reform. An Nahar, Lebanon’s largest paper, today published what it claims to be asked-for changes to electoral law. These include the direct election of municipality heads and deputies, a woman’s quota in 30 percent of ballots, PR voting in major cities and pre-printed ballot papers.

All these are welcome changes. Not all are likely to be made.

Why Ahmadinejad’s ‘win’ could be a good thing

I might not the most authoritative source on all things Middle East, Lebanese or Iranian. Or all things for that matter. But the news today that Iran’s incumbent, Mahmood Ahmadinejad, has won Friday’s election, should be viewed with positivity here in Lebanon.

Coming six days after the Lebanese voted in their first post-Syrian elections- in which the ruling March 14 coalition won the majority of parliamentary seats – Iran’s electorate seem to have backed a hardliner and his antipathetic views towards the West.

The Lebanese election result was reported widely – if oversimplistically – as a victory for the West over Hizbullah’s support for (and from) Iran. Much of the Western press’ coverage centred on this reductive dichotomy of West vs East, of petrodollars and liberalism vs resistance and Islamist rhetoric.

Hizbollah cigarette cases and celebratory gunfire

As I’m sure many of you will be aware, Lebanon had its first post-Syrian general elections. They were billed as the closest in a generation and could have proven to be pivotal in the Middle East peace process.

On one side was March 14, a Western-backed coalition lead by the Future Movement’s MP Saad Hariri. On the other, the Hizbollah-dominated March 8 alliance, seen as leaning towards Iran and the foundation of an independent Islamic state.

Fortunately for those of us with fair skin and blue eyes, March 14 won, an outcome that never seemed so straightforward during campaigning and polling. Speaking with entire subjectivity, this is a good thing for Lebanon. It means that the huge amounts of US aid dollars will continue to flow into the country and that the delicate but so far finely-kept peace should be maintained.

Baabda with Osama

I can’t really begin to describe Beirut. It is the most daunting, confusing, exciting, thrilling and challenging place I’ve ever been to. From the Lebanese Army officers who strut around checkpoints with AK-47s cocked to the 300 car political rallies that cruise down Gemmayzeh street beeping their horns when you are trying to sleep, Beirut is a taxing city.

The flat I am staying in is right next to an apartment block whose walls are pockmarked with civil war bullet holes.

But Beirut is also a city of tolerance, a city where people know how to live. I have been to so many amazing places, bars, shwarmah outlets and cafes. A friend and colleague perhaps summed it up best by saying, “Beirut can be anything you want it to be. If you want Paris, it’s here. If you want Arab culture, it’s here. If you want luxury hotels and shops, they are here.”

“If you don’t enjoy Beirut, you are doing it wrong.”

I have been thrown into the deep end of work with my first assignment involving speaking to youth voters at the city’s two main universities, AUB and LAU. The range of political affiliations, erudition and enthusiasm is both confusing and overwhelming.

A March 14 supporter, who I met beneath a wysteria plant, heavy with flowers, in AUB, saw me in Faysals, a jibni outlet late last night. I sat and ate flatbread as he and his friend showed me videos of Hizbollah and Future Movement forces shooting at one another last year on Rue Hamra, a street which I had been walking down less than an hour ago.

“This is not a movie. This is Lebanon,” he responds to my face of stupid astonishment.

I will try to post something a little more substantial on my day off tomorrow. There will be a 9pm curfew and everything is closing all of Sunday (except the trusty Daily Star!) for voting. I will be buying supplies of water and beer – you can never be too careful…

On Sunday I will be traveling to a District of East Beirut, Baabda, with an Arab journalistcumreporter, Osama. Baabda is key state, with the outcome of the entire election potentially hinging on how much ground March 8 can gain there.

I urge you to watch this on TV, or at the Daily Star. This could be a new chapter in the long and rugged book that is Lebanon.