A voter casting their ballot in the urn during the last municipal elections, on May 11, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient-Le Jour)
The head of the municipalities department of the Baalbek-Hermel governorate, Hiba Hassan Zeaiter, assumed her duties as interim qaim maqam (state representative at the district level) of Hermel on Monday, following the arrest of her predecessor in May, reported the state-run National News Agency. She will hold both positions until an official replacement is appointed.
At the end of May, the State Security service arrested Hermel's qaim maqam, Talal Kataya, for the second time as part of an investigation into the disappearance of documents related to municipal elections.
He was briefly arrested for the first time on the eve of the municipal elections that took place in the Bekaa and Baalbek-Hermel governorates on May 18, based on accusations of "disappearance" of permits granted to delegates from a rival list to the one supported by the Hezbollah-Amal alliance.
The arrest of such a high-ranking official for an electoral corruption case, particularly benefiting the two parties' lists in one of its strongholds, remains an unprecedented occurrence. The role of the deputy mayor is similar to that of a sub-prefect. They exercise administrative authority in areas smaller than those of governorates, often at the level of a district.
