Head of the Amal Movement Nabih Berri addresses Parliament on May 25, 2021. (Credit: Nabil Ismaïl)
BEIRUT— Parliament speaker Nabih Berri said on Friday that Lebanon’s future depends on the upcoming May 15 parliamentary elections during a speech in al-Msayleh, South Lebanon where the Berri-headed Amal Movement announced the launch of its electoral campaign and its list of candidates, “Hope and Loyalty,” formed jointly with Hezbollah, in the South Lebanon II district.
Here’s what we know:
• During the event, he described the upcoming polls as the “most dangerous [elections] since the Taif agreement of 1989.”
• Berri’s speech, given to an audience waving Amal flags and wearing Amal sashes and hats, spoke to “the hard-currency container campaigns, who allege having spent $30 million to break Amal’s influence in this area. If they had spent these amounts on development projects, I would have voted for them.” Al-Msayleh is included in the South Lebanon II constituency that comprises the Sour and Zahrani districts, two important Amal areas.
• The Parliament speaker continued emphasizing the importance of voter turnout warning against “clichés” that allege “the elections’ outcomes are guaranteed hence there’s no need to vote.”
• The “Hope and Loyalty” list, whose name references both the Amal (Hope) Movement and Hezbollah, whose parliamentary bloc is titled Loyalty to the Resistance.
• Earlier in the day, Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces, Hezbollah’s political rival, addressed Shia voters in particular while saying “that the [LF] had said in 2018 that whoever voted for the Free Patriotic Movement would be voting for Hezbollah, and that now whoever would be voting for Hezbollah would be voting for the Free Patriotic Movement.”
