A Lebanese voter slips a ballot into a ballot box during the 2018 legislative elections. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
The Metn District (Mount Lebanon II) is the constituency that all major Christian parties consider their stronghold. This is particularly the case for the Kataeb, but also for the Free Patriotic Movement, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the Armenian Tashnag party. The Lebanese Forces also have a considerable presence in Metn, which is also the stronghold of Michel Murr, a former MP with a traditional presence in this district.
In the upcoming May legislative elections, Mount Lebanon II will be, as in 2018, the battleground between those close to the government and those who oppose it. These Christian rivals are expected to compete for eight seats: four Maronite, two Greek Orthodox, one Greek Catholic and one Armenian Orthodox.
Eyes will first be riveted on the FPM. The party founded by President Michel Aoun had, in 2018, presented a common front with its traditional allies, namely the SSNP and Tashnag. The list, then called “the Strong Metn,” managed to obtain 38,897 votes, winning four seats: one Maronite (Ibrahim Kanaan), one Greek Orthodox (Elias Bou Saab), and the Armenian Orthodox (Hagop Pakradounian) and Greek Catholic (Eddy Maalouf).
In 2022, the deal seems a little more complicated for the FPM. First, because the election will take place only five months before the expiration of Aoun’s presidential term next October. Second, because the battle is taking place in a region that was one of the epicenters of the protest movement of October 2019, which strongly opposed the Baabda camp, including the FPM and its leader, Aoun’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil. One still remembers the thousands of Lebanese (including supporters of the LF and Kataeb) who blocked the highway at Jal al-Dib to demonstrate their anger against the ruling class.
The Aounists are therefore slowly but surely preparing for the battle. Kanaan and Maalouf are expected to take part in the race thanks to the results of the internal Aounist primary elections held last November. Bou Saab is also expected to be part of the FPM-sponsored list, which may be joined by the SSNP.
Tashnag and Murr
However, the Aounists could lose the support of their traditional Armenian ally. This impression was given by the presence of Pakradounian, secretary-general of Tashnag, at the press conference held last week by former minister Elias Murr.
The latter announced the candidacy of his son, Michel, for one of the Greek Orthodox seats in the constituency. While Elias Murr emphasized the “historical and familial” nature of the “partnership with Tashnag,” Pakradounian was keen to temper this.
“We have not yet taken a final decision, neither on the level of electoral alliances nor on the level of candidates,” he told L'Orient-Le Jour.
How then does one explain the Armenian gesture towards Elias Murr and his son?
“We do not want to see the traditional political houses closed,” he said. “We also do not want to harm our traditional allies, namely the FPM and the SSNP,” he added, indicating that his party “sees that some changes have occurred in Metn.” This may be a way of leaving the door open to a possible abandonment of the Aounist formation, due to careful electoral calculations.
The fact remains that the candidacy of Michel Elias Murr is in itself a clear message to all the protagonists present on the Metn scene: even after the death of Michel Murr (Jan. 31, 2021), the family intends to continue its public and political action.
The Aounists should be the first to grasp this message, because back in the 2018 elections, Murr who was then nicknamed the “patriarch” of Metn surprised everyone by forming an incomplete list, with just four candidates instead of eight, dubbed the “Metn Loyalty List," which allowed him to access Parliament, despite his rivals being keen on stripping him of all his allies.
But the move encountered several obstacles: Michel Murr was abandoned by both the Tashnag and the Maronite businessman Sarkis Sarkis. The latter was “snatched” from him by the Aounists, but was not elected. On the other hand, and with 11,945 votes, “Abu Elias” was able to secure a seat in Parliament.
Like the FPM, LF leader Samir Geagea, who presents himself as a fierce opponent of the government, is slowly advancing his pawns in Metn, where he will face both his Aounist opponents and Samy Gemayel’s Kataeb, with whom relations are on the rocks.
In 2018, the LF sponsored a list that could only attract 13,138 voters among the 92,446 in the district. This list, then led by Greek-Catholic businessman Michel Mecattaf, CEO of the daily Nidaa al-Watan, won a Maronite seat, the one Eddy Abillama holds, with 8,922 votes. It was then a first for Geagea’s party.
With this result, the Christian leader announced a week ago the candidacy of Melhem Riachi, former information minister and architect, alongside Kanaan, of the “inter-Christian reconciliation” sealed by the Meerab agreement, in the Greek-Catholic seat of Metn.
As for Razi Hajj, activist and economist, he is running for a Maronite seat, as he did in 2018 alongside the LF.
In 2018, the economist won 1,018 preferential votes. Contacted by L’Orient-Le Jour, Hajj explained that he took part in the 2019 protest movement and is allied with Geagea's party to give a new dimension to his struggle.
“We are sure to get at least one seat in Metn. We are working for the second,” he said, noting that the LF will fight side by side with the National Liberal Party of Camille Dory Chamoun, both in Metn and Baabda.
This information was confirmed by the NLP in a statement issued last Friday. It even announced the candidacy of Rachid Khalil Abou Jawde for one of the Maronite seats in Mount Lebanon II.
Samy Gemayel on his land
On the side of the Kataeb, Samy Gemayel is on his land. Wanting to spearhead the opposition, Gemayel, who won the highest number of votes (13,968) in 2018 in Metn before resigning from Parliament in the wake of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, is carefully preparing his list.
“In this constituency, we are the strongest,” says Elias Hankash, who was also elected to Parliament for the district in 2018 but resigned following the port blast. “We are in a good position in all the constituencies where the opponents can unite,” he adds, noting that contacts are underway to achieve this goal.
As for candidates, Gemayel and Hankash (both Maronite) are expected to run again. But the party’s political bureau has not yet taken a decision on this matter. Informed sources also say that the Kataeb is in contact with Laury Haytayan, an expert in hydrocarbons who is part of the Taqaddum collective, and Ghassan Moukheiber, a Greek-Orthodox former MP who broke away from the Aounist parliamentary bloc.
Like the Kataeb, several civil society groups will try to win seats in Parliament. If in 2018, the “Kulluna Watani” list did not win the battle (5,027 votes while the eligibility threshold was 11,300 votes), the factions and groups from the thawra (uprising) want to take advantage of the generalized popular anger.
“We want to present voters with a serious alternative to show them that this political class is not indispensable,” Salman Samaha, a founding member of the Independent Metniots group, told L’Orient-Le Jour. “We are working to put together a comprehensive list,” he added.
The names of some potential candidates are beginning to circulate, including Élie Yachoui, an economic expert (Maronite) and Nada Zaarour, former president of the Green Party (Maronite) and unsuccessful candidate in the 2018 elections, a battle she fought alongside the Kataeb.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Samy Gemayel and Elias Hankash are current members of Parliament. In fact, both resigned their seats in the aftermath of the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion.
