Madinati presents its candidates for May 15 elections during an event at ABC Achrafieh on Tuesday. (Credit: DR)
BEIRUT — The environmentalist and social-democratic Madinati movement, the political heir of Beirut Madinati, a collective born in 2016 during the municipal elections and which now sets its sights beyond the capital, announced on Tuesday its candidates for the May 15 parliamentary elections.
At a conference held in a movie theater at the ABC shopping mall in Ashrafieh, the movement announced 13 candidates, including two in the capital, Beirut, in constituenties I and II, and two in the South, in the constituencies I and III.
These candidates are on-the-ground activists, all having participated in the popular uprising of Oct. 17, 2019. Among them are Nada Sehnaoui, Sarah Yassine, Wassim Ghandour, Verena El Amil, Levon Telvizian and Nahida Khalil.
“The elections are held in eight weeks, the situation of the country is catastrophic and the government has no plan to remedy it. We can’t wait for a solution from abroad. It is up to us to stay in this country, vote and bring change,” said Rima Abou Chacra, one of Madinati’s candidates.
The movement said it is in talks with other “forces of change” about participation on candidate lists, which it will most likely announce in April.
Madinati established several months ago a political program based on “state building,” “sustainable economic recovery” and “social justice.”
On Saturday, six parties and collectives of the Lebanese opposition held a conference at which they announced they would join forces for the legislative elections. They are the National Bloc, Mintishreen, Liqaa Tishreen, Taqaddom, the Plenary Assembly of October 17 and Khat Ahmar.
This article was originally published in French in L’Orient-Le Jour.
