What Happened to Joumana in the Elections with 7000+ Documented Violations
It was a long and hard-fought campaign that stretched back more than a year. A group of 66 candidates with less than half a million total for the campaign, versus a mix-and-match of political money behemoths that spent tens of millions of dollars on ads, airtime and of course bribes.
Monday morning, around 5AM, every campaign, including ours, had run the numbers and double and triple checked the exit polls. What was certain, is that Kollouna Watani had secured 2 seats in the Beirut 1 District. Results that even the sulta had confirmed, even before we did.
Around 6AM though, our candidates and their representatives were kicked out of the vote counting center in the Forum de Beirut area. This came after several envelopes without the red wax seal had gotten in. Add to that an excuse that “the room doesn’t fit” (it does) and “IT problems” (weird how IT people can’t work if there’s someone overseeing them), and our candidates spent little over an hour demanding they be let in to oversee the vote counting process. It wasn’t till after 7AM that they were let in after threats to go public about this clear, abhorrent violation of the electoral law.
Before they were kicked out, we had a little over 1.6 “7asel” (threshold) which translates to two seats: Paula Yaacoubian, and Joumana Haddad. After our team was let back in, the number magically dropped from 1.6 to 1.2. In the new law, you round up or down when it’s decimal points. So, 1.6=2 and 1.2=1.
Now, if I walk into a room and see you holding a bucket of shit, then I am escorted out of the room, and when I go back in, one of the people that were inside was covered with shit, then it’s safe to assume you threw that bucket of shit on them. Same goes for the illegal and unacceptable kicking out of our candidates and reps right after mysterious, unsealed packages were brought in.
This is almost exactly what was done to Beirut Madinati. Phantom boxes, kicking out reps and candidates and a sudden change in the result.
The least that can be done, is demanding a recount that is transparent and overseen by people who don’t have a personal stake in making us lose. If this government and everyone in it has a shred of respect for the voters that pay their salaries, they will do that immediately. Our team of laywers is already laying the groundwork for our appeal for an immediate recount, if not more.
Today, our teams are continuing to follow this up and build a case. This post’s purpose was to clarify what happened in the past 48 hours. If after the recount, where we can prove there was no tampering, we still have the 1.2 instead of the 1.6, as Joumana said last night in the protest in front of the Interior Ministry, we will concede our seat. But, given the circumstances and the massive breaches of trust and protocol, we have serious doubts about what happened, and why we were kicked out, and how the results magically changed in that time.
The Protest
After being completely demoralized, I was reinvigorated when I saw so many young people come down to protest at such short notice. My heart grew when I saw the passion and rage, but also pragmatic approach to what to do next of all the amazing boys and girls that showed up yesterday, and stayed till the early hours of the morning making their voices heard, when they felt their votes were being silenced.
Yesterday was the first step, and we will continue this struggle so the truth comes out and the voters’ decision is respected and upheld, not undermined and fabricated.
Li Baladi is here, we’re not going anywhere, and 2022 is just around the corner.
Here’s to seeing Joumana get the seat she won, and the warlords and thieves learning to respect the people’s will.
