Mufti urges Lebanese to vote as lists of Saniora, civil society announced

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, the country’s top Sunni Muslim religious authority, has called on the Lebanese to turn out heavily in the May 15 parliamentary elections, despite a declared boycott by al-Mustaqbal Movement, Lebanon’s biggest Sunni political party.

“There is a remaining peaceful path and the Lebanese must take it without hesitation. All Lebanese must head to polling stations,” Daryan said in his annual Ramadan message.

“A lot of old and new candidates possess dynamism, uprightness and a will to change,” the mufti added.

“They want us to remain silent, stay in our homes or emigrate, but we don’t want to do this or that. The era of submission and fear is over. The promise of revolution against tyrants, oppressors and corrupts has kicked off,” Daryan declared.

“Let us go to elections together in order to produce alternatives together,” he urged.

An electoral list that will compete in Beirut’s second district and is backed by ex-PM Fouad Saniora was meanwhile announced on Friday.

The list, named ‘Beirut Confronts’, is led by ex-minister Khaled Qabbani and comprised of Bashir Itani, Majed Dimashqiyeh, Zeina al-Masri, Lina Tannir, Abdul Rahman al-Mubashirr, Ahmed Ayyash, Faisal al-Sayegh, Michel Falah and George Haddad.

The list was announced at a rally at the Riviera Hotel in the presence of Saniora and representatives of Beiruti families.

The civil society groups that took part in the Oct. 17, 2019 popular uprising meanwhile managed to agree on a unified list for Beirut’s second electoral district.

The list comprises Ibrahim Mneimneh (Sunni, Beirut Tuqawem), Hasan Sinno (Sunni, Lana), Waddah al-Sadeq (Sunni, Ana Khatt Ahmar), Sara Yassine (Sunni, Madinati), Iman Tabbara (Sunni, National Bloc), Rushdi Qabbani (Sunni, Thuwwar Beirut), Ali Abbas (Shiite, Popular Observatory for Combating Corruption), Mahmoud Fakih (Shiite, Watani Alliance) and former Beirut Bar Association chief Melhem Khalaf (Greek Orthodox, independent).

The two lists will mainly compete against four other lists backed respectively by the Shiite Duo, MP Fouad Makhzoumi, the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects and Nabil Badr, who is the chairman of the Al Ansar Football Club.