With six weeks to go before the Lebanese parliamentary elections, The New York Times is reporting a significant amount of money being spent on vote-buying. The June election is seen as a battle between factions allied with the West, like the March 14th Coalition, and factions allied with Iran and Syria, such as Hizballah and AMAL, respectively. As a consequence, Lebanon is witnessing vast amounts of cash being thrown around to drum up votes.
According to the NY Times article, cases of cold calling have been reported where the voter is offered a substantial sum of cash for his or her vote. In some cases, Lebanese abroad are offered free airfare and cash to come back to Lebanon and vote. However, most of the activity seems centered around heads of clans that can deliver reliable votes in large numbers.
Although few admit to external patronage, many believe that Hizballah is receiving major funding from Iran, AMAL from Syria and March 14, from Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has been suspicious and critical of creeping Iranian influence in the region and is spending a fortune to halt Hizballah’s progress in Lebanon:
“We are putting a lot into this,” said one adviser to the Saudi government, who added that the Saudi contribution was likely to reach hundreds of millions of dollars in a country of only four million people. “We’re supporting candidates running against Hezbollah, and we’re going to make Iran feel the pressure.”
That is a substantial sum of money given the size of the country and the population they are targeting, especially when you figure that Iran is probably spending a similar amount.
It is unclear how much effect all of this will have on the election results. If every faction receives substantial amounts of patronage and buys the same amount of votes with it, the end result is the same. But in an election this closely contested, each vote cast and each dollar spent is crucial. If Hizballah wins in the way that the current polls are suggesting, that could tip the fragile balance here resulting in a stronger, more permanent Shiite political presence- and therefore Iranian presence- in Lebanon.
So once again, external rivals are using Lebanon as a battleground to fight for their interests. And while it may be disturbing to learn of such unabashed corruption, at least the “war” is being fought this time, not in the streets, but in the ballot box.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
