Brawls, Vote Buying Claims in Tense Zahle as Hizbullah Backs Candidates from 3 Lists

Three candidate lists in the eastern town of Zahle were competing on Sunday to win the municipal elections race which started early morning, in a heated battle that has witnessed fistfights and vote buying allegations.

The brother of Zahle MP Nicolas Fattoush, Moussa, heads a candidate list named “Zahle is Worthy”. Another list is backed by Popular Bloc leader Myriam Skaff, the widow of late Zahle politician Elie Skaff. Her list was named “Zahle the Integrity.”

Former Zahle Mayor Asaad Zogheib is meanwhile leading an alliance backed by the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party.

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem announced early on Sunday that the party will distribute its votes among the FPM and the lists backed by Skaff and Fattoush.

The Skaff-backed list is meanwhile expected to receive support from al-Mustaqbal movement.

On the ground, the electoral process was marred by several incidents.

According to media reports, supporters of Skaff and Fattoush brawled in Zahle's Mar Elias neighborhood as the Hawsh al-Omara area witnessed a clash between LF and Popular Bloc supporters, which prompted the army to intervene.

Security forces meanwhile raided apartments in Hawsh al-Omara after claims that the lists backed by Skaff and Fattoush were buying votes there.

Later on Sunday, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq announced that security forces did not find evidence of any vote buying operations during their raids in the city.

But later in the day, Mashnouq declared that "one person was arrested on charges of vote buying in Zahle" and that "authorities are probing a list of individuals suspected of paying electoral bribes in specific areas."

Y.R./D.A.