LF and FPM flags in Batroun, May 15, 2022. (Photo: Ibrahim Chalhoub / AFP)
In this constituency (10 seats: seven Maronites and three Greek-Orthodox) — comprising the districts of Zgharta, Bsharri, Koura and Batroun — the Lebanese Forces (three seats in 2018) and the Free Patriotic Movement (three seats in 2018) fought a war of attrition, especially in Batroun, with all eyes on the presidential elections scheduled for October.
Though he did not manage to defeat Gebran Bassil, Samir Geagea scored points by allowing Ghaith Yazbeck to get ahead of the FPM leader in Batroun.
The results
- The LF (three seats in 2018) won hands down against Gebran Bassil in Batroun.
- Having obtained the highest number of individual votes, Gayath Yazbeck will replace his colleague Fadi Saad in one of the two seats in Batroun.
- Geagea’s party also avenged the defeat of Fadi Karam in 2018, by recovering his Greek Orthodox seat in Koura at the expense of the Syrian Social National Party.
- In Bsharri, Sethrida Geagea was re-elected to a Maronite seat.
- However, the LF suffered a serious setback in their stronghold: Melhem (William) Tawk, allied with the Marada Movement, won the second Maronite seat in the locality at the expense of the LF— the first such reversal in several years.
- Bassil was reelected in Batroun, as was his running mate George Atallah, MP for Koura.
- Also touted as a serious presidential contender, Marada leader, Zgharta’s Sleiman Frangieh (two seats in 2018) won a seat in his district, which went to Tony Frangieh, as was the case in 2018, in addition to William Tawk’s in Bsharri.
- Independence Movement head Michel Moawad was reelected after switching to the opposition forces groups, overtaking Tony Frangieh in Zgharta.
- The list sponsored by the Kataeb, Majd Harb, and Moawad also snatched the Greek Orthodox seat in Koura, which went to Adib Abdelmassih.
- Shamaluna, the list of protest movement groups, made a breakthrough with Michel Douaihy who was elected to a Maronite seat in Zgharta.
What to remember
- While it managed to return Tony Frangieh to Parliament, Sleiman Frangieh’s party suffered a defeat, losing a seat in Koura.
- However, with the election of Melhem (William) Tawk to a Maronite seat in Bsharri, Sleiman Frangieh was able to make a breakthrough in the previously undisputed stronghold of his longtime rival, Samir Geagea.
- Undermined by internal differences, the SSNP won no seats in its traditional stronghold of Koura, although it had held one since 2018.