Electoral workers sort ballots after the polls were closed during Lebanon's parliamentary election in Khiam, near the border with Israel, in southern Lebanon May 15, 2022. (Credit: Issam Abdallah/Reuters)
BEIRUT — All administrative workers who helped organize the 2022 Parliamentary elections, including the Interior Ministry’s work team, haven’t been paid yet, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told L’Orient Today on Thursday, who also admitted that the Internal Security Forces and soldiers, on the other hand, were paid 40 percent of their elections stipends.
According to a statement by the Committee of Contract Teachers in the Elementary Public Education published on Thursday, “Public sector employees, including teachers, were promised a sum of LL3,600,000 for their participation [in the electoral process], to be paid within a maximum of one week.”
The head of Contract Teachers in the Principle Public Education Committee, Nesreen Shaheen, told L’Orient Today that contract teachers who participated in handling the electoral process, which took place on May 15 “haven’t been paid their election stipends, not even a transportation allowance.”
A high school teacher who helped organize the election on election day on May 15, told L'Orient Today that he indeed has not been paid for his work that day.
"They said they would pay us right away, then they said after a week, then ten days and we still haven't gotten paid until now," he said.
Shaheen added that some teachers commuted long distances two times during the elections, “first time was the day before the elections to get the ballot box and deliver it to the polling center and the second time was on the day of the elections when we drove to the polling center,” adding that “some lived far from their assigned polling center.”
Fuel prices in Lebanon are drastically affected by the severe economic crisis and the triple-digit inflation rate the country is reeling from, where petrol and diesel experience price hikes on a regular basis.
A spokesperson for the ISF confirmed to L’Orient Today that members who were guarding polling stations were paid 40 percent of their elections stipends.
The statement of the contract teachers committee added that it acknowledges “the right of members of security forces to be paid their fees, and so we must ask, isn’t it also the right of teachers, who fulfilled their duties as a registrar and clerk and who paid transportation fees for two working days … to receive their payments?”
The Interior Ministry told L’Orient Today that payments made to the ISF and soldiers were agreed upon by the ministry in advance and the Finance Ministry approved it before the parliamentary elections proceedings, “Otherwise, no one else was compensated for their work [on election day] from administrative staff to the work team of the [Interior] Minister.” The Finance Ministry could not immediately confirm why the workers haven’t been paid yet.
The Interior Ministry, who oversees and organizes the parliamentary elections, said that at least LL115 billion were spent to cover 40 percent of payments to the ISF and soldiers.
Shaheen added that upon reaching out to the Education Ministry as well as the Interior Ministry to demand their payments be settled, the committee was told that it’s not the responsibility of either ministries.
“If both say it’s not their job, whose job is it?” Shaheen asked.
*Correction: An earlier version of this article mislabeled Nesreen Shaheen's name.