The list was announced from Fares Souaid's house in Qartaba. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — A list of candidates led by former Jbeil MP Fares Souaid in the Mount Lebanon I electoral district (Kesrouan-Jbeil) called the “Freedom is a Choice” list was announced Sunday, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• The announcement came from Souaid’s house in the town of Qartaba.
• There are eight seats in total to fill in Mount Lebanon I: seven Maronite and one Shiite. The NNA reported six names on Souaid’s list. The Maronite candidates on the list are Mansour Ghanem Al-Boun, Musa Zughaib and Bahjat Salameh in Kesrouan and Fares Souaid and Asaad Rashda for Jbeil. Mashhour Haidar will run for the Shiite seat.
• When contacted by L’Orient Today, Souaid said that he hopes to add two more names to the list before noon Monday. The deadline for registering electoral lists at the Interior Ministry is midnight Monday.
• Souaid said that Haidar’s presence on the list evidences the practice of coexistence in the country, noting that “we and the Shiite sect in the region are one family.”
• The list will face off against the traditional political groups as well as two other independent lists, including one led by resigned MP Nehmat Frem from the “Nation’s Cry” list and the “The Independent Heart of Lebanon,” list led by President Michael Aoun’s son-in-law MP Chamel Roukoz.