A police officer questions a motorist after a curfew to combat coronavirus. (Photo by Marc Fayad)
Lebanon goes into lockdown tomorrow, with curfew running from 5 p.m. till 5 a.m. daily. The Interior Ministry also announced it would allow only vehicles with odd-numbered license plates to drive on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and those with even numbers Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; no traffic is to be allowed Sundays. The measures come as authorities grapple with the surging coronavirus pandemic: Lebanon’s cumulative total of cases since February surpassed 100,000 yesterday. The high caseload is straining hospitals, which are in a race to add capacity. As of Wednesday night, 72 percent of the country’s 845 regular COVID-19 hospital beds were occupied, and 81 percent of ICU beds were full, according to the latest report from the World Health Organization.
Emmanuel Macron’s diplomatic advisor on the Middle East will continue his meetings with Lebanese politicians today. Patrick Durel discussed the latest updates, or lack thereof, regarding the cabinet formation process yesterday with President Michel Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Premier-designate Saad Hariri, among others. Top politicians yesterday affirmed their commitment to Macron’s road map for reforms, rolled out in early September, even though they have failed to complete its first step of forming a new government. Durel is delivering a message that Lebanon would lose out on aid if political paralysis continues in the country, our sister publication L’Orient-Le Jour reports, adding that Durel’s trip comes ahead of an expected visit by Macron to Lebanon in December.
The Beirut Bar Association yesterday warned politicians and Banque du Liban against using “flimsy excuses” to obstruct a forensic audit of the central bank. Authorities last week agreed to give BDL three more months to hand over documents to auditor Alvarez & Marsal, after the central bank had missed the first deadline on the dubious legal grounds that the disclosure would violate banking secrecy rules. The Bar dubbed the deadline extension “reprehensible and incoherent,” saying the required documents could be produced within hours. The Bar, which has ramped up its efforts for accountability, defended the principle that banking secrecy does not apply to public funds, but said that the relevant legislation could be amended with an explicit provision to remove any doubt.
Parliament’s economic committee discussed “retargeting subsidies” at its meeting yesterday, in a bid to preserve BDL’s dwindling reserves. MP Ali Darwiche told L’Orient Today that lawmakers also discussed a program to deliver additional financial support to the most vulnerable. The Women and Children’s Committee also met, examining a proposal to allow women to open bank accounts for their children. Meanwhile, the Youth and Sports Committee got off to a slower start to the fall term, briefly discussing several proposals but postponing work till next week.
The family of Alaa Abou Fakher marked the passage of one year since he was shot and killed by a soldier in Khaldeh. Abou Fakher was killed in front of his wife and young son while blocking a road during a protest against the political class. Two members of Army Intelligence were implicated, Col. Nidal Daou and his driver, 1st Adj. Charbel Ajeil. Lawyers for the family held a press conference calling for justice in the case, which is at the secretive Military Tribunal, not a regular court. Candles were lit at the Khaldeh Triangle, where Abou Fakher, hailed as a martyr of the Oct. 17 uprising, was shot.
The committee of families of victims of the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion is set to hold a demonstration this afternoon outside Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s Ain al-Tineh residence in Beirut. The group said in a statement that it will not “calm down” in the face of injustice, over three months since the devastating explosion killed at least 204 people, with nobody yet held to account. The aggrieved families are calling for a decree that would give victims of the explosion the same treatment as Lebanese army soldiers killed in the line of duty. Berri met with a delegation of the victims on Oct. 19, promising that Parliament would do everything in its power to help them.
Students at the American University of Beirut vote online this afternoon for a new student council, the latest educational institute to hold elections. Close to 100 independent candidates are running for office under the Campus Choice campaign supported by the university’s Secular Club. The candidates’ platform calls for AUB, one of the most expensive universities in the country, to end tuition hikes on continuing students. Student clubs affiliated with the Free Patriotic Movement, the Future Movement and Hezbollah will boycott the vote, citing “faults” in election preparations and the use of electronic voting. Establishment parties suffered setbacks against independent candidates in the Rafik Hariri University elections on Nov. 2 and the Lebanese American University votes last month.
