President Michel Aoun at the Presidential Palace in Baabda on April 7, 2021. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — President Michel Aoun said Friday, two days before Sunday’s parliamentary elections, that “certain candidates are buying votes,” and that some the bribes paid to voters “come from abroad.” The president’s comments came during a meeting with European Union elections observers in Baabda.
Here’s what we know:
• Aoun said that vote buyers were “taking advantage of the difficult socio-economic situation” in Lebanon. On Thursday, the president called on security forces and the judiciary to “pursue bribe payers and those who accept them, in order to prevent these practices which could negatively influence the democratic vote and its results.”
• Historically, elections in Lebanon have been marked by the spending of millions of dollars on communications, clientelism and vote-buying, with little regard for official campaign expenditure ceilings.
• Aoun and his political camp are accused by some Lebanese officials and citizens of being one of the symbols of corruption in a country that has been grappling with an unprecedented economic crisis since 2019.