USJ's Medical School in Beirut. (Credit: L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Candidates independent of Lebanon’s establishment political parties won the majority of seats at 10 faculties in student elections at the Beirut-based Université Saint-Joseph (USJ), our sister publication L’Orient-Le Jour reported.
Here’s what we know:
• A representative of USJ’s Secular Club said Sunday that 98 students from a slate of 133 candidates in the “Taleb” independent list won seats in the voting the day before.
• The independent candidates won the presidency of ten USJ faculties, including those of: occupational therapy, speech therapy, letters and human sciences, nursing, midwifery, political science, institute of educators, medicine, education and sciences.
• The Lebanese Forces trailed in second place, winning 49 seats, an improvement on its tally of 24 in 2020. Candidates from the political party won the presidencies of five faculties: law, management, communications, physiotherapy and the school of laboratory technicians. The LF also won the presidency of the student council, defeating independents by one vote.
• Free Patriotic Movement candidates won six seats, while the Kataeb won two.
• The elections were originally scheduled for Oct. 15, but were delayed due to the deadly clashes the day before in Beirut’s Tayyouneh area.