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Lebanese expatriates vote in parliamentary elections

News Agency nabakhabar — Fri, 06 May 2022 20:30:42 +0000

Lebanese expatriates have begun casting their votes in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, almost three years into a crippling economic crisis that has decimated the Lebanese pound, sparked unprecedented inflation, and pushed thousands of people to leave the country.

Lebanese expats living in 10 countries – including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, and Iraq – will vote on Friday, while the diaspora living in 48 other countries will vote on Sunday.

Lebanese citizens at home will vote on May 15.

A total of 244,442 Lebanese abroad have registered to cast their ballots in the election, more than double the number of expats who signed up to vote in the previous polls in 2018.

While many opposition groups are hoping to gain significant votes from the diaspora amid the economic crisis, some analysts say Lebanon’s traditional parties will likely remain dominant after the election.

Mohammed Rida, 28, left Beirut less than a year ago after finding a job in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He grew up in a family that backed former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who leads the Sunni-majority Future Movement party.

Though he never closely followed politics, he may opt for an anti-establishment group this time.

“I usually turn to friends of mine who are a lot more informed than I am in the political sphere to choose,” Rida told Al Jazeera.

Lebanon holds parliamentary elections every four years, with seats allocated for its wide array of sects under its fragile sectarian power-sharing system. The presidency is allocated to a Maronite Christian, the premiership to a Sunni Muslim, and the parliament speaker is a Shia Muslim.

Those abroad were allowed to vote for the first time in 2018 under a new electoral law that also stipulated that six new seats would be added to the parliament in the 2022 election to represent the diaspora.

However, following pressure from independent political parties and expats, members of parliament rejected adding those six seats, which means expats will vote within the existing 128 seats.

‘Lebanon doesn’t deserve this’

Millions have left Lebanon over the past decades, taking their skills abroad to find better opportunities and secure a stable future in the face of instability, systematic corruption, and financial mismanagement. While there are no clear numbers, many estimates claim that more Lebanese people live abroad than within the tiny country itself, home to some 6.5 million people, including Lebanese and refugees.

But in the past few years, an unsuccessful uprising against the status quo, the economic collapse, and the devastating 2020 Beirut Port blast drove many more to leave the country.

Resentment over systematic corruption, financial mismanagement, and disregard for worsening living conditions is at an all-time high.

Software engineer Jack Demirji, 35, left Lebanon for Sao Paulo, Brazil, in early 2021. He said he did not want to leave, but “the Beirut blast forced me”.

“Although I don’t believe that the new election is going to change anything, I’m going to vote … I feel it’s a responsibility,” Demirji told Al Jazeera. “For sure, I won’t vote for the traditional political parties.”

After taking part in mass protests in late 2019, he says he was frustrated by the inability of anti-establishment parties to form united electoral lists to take on the country’s ruling parties.

“I believe we have great potential in the Lebanese people but everyone wants to be the leader,” he said.

Demirji says he cares about Lebanon, but does not plan on moving back after losing his savings in the bank as the Lebanese pound’s value against the dollar has slumped by about 90 percent, and struggling with crippling power cuts and fuel shortages in the past year. He says he will only visit to see family and friends.

“When I was living in Lebanon, my greatest goal was how can I get electricity, from where do I put fuel for my car … those stupid little things,” he said. “But after I left Lebanon I started to focus on myself to see how I can improve myself, [and] I started to put meaningful goals and achieve them.”

In Paris, France, 26-year-old nurse Rita El Daher is not relishing a 90-minute trip to vote, but is desperate for any kind of change.

“I’m voting because this is the only time my voice will be heard for the next four years,” El Daher told Al Jazeera.

She lost one of her friends in the Beirut Port explosion and worked at a hospital in the capital that was badly damaged and nearly put out of commission. She spent that dreadful night treating hundreds of patients.

El-Daher is among an estimated 30 percent of Lebanese nurses who have left the country since the economic crisis took hold in 2019.

But she does not have hope in the divided anti-establishment parties.

“I will be voting for whoever will be fighting against Hezbollah,” El Daher said, citing the Iran-backed armed movement. “Lebanon doesn’t deserve this. My country is heaven.”

Georgia Dagher, a researcher at Beirut-based think tank The Policy Initiative, says it is unlikely that the Lebanese diaspora will swing the vote in favour of opposition parties.

“People usually think the diaspora are one group of people, but we need to remember that they left in different waves,” Dagher told Al Jazeera. “Some left during the civil war and might be attached to a traditional party, and those who left recently are more likely to vote for opposition groups.”

Lebanon’s mosaic of sectarian political parties have a strong presence in the diaspora and have loyal support in countries where the diaspora moved generations ago, including in the United States, Canada, Australia, and across Africa.

Dagher says younger, more recent emigrants have the possibility of swinging the vote in favour of some anti-establishment candidates in some districts.

“But we can assume the overwhelming majority will still vote for traditional parties,” she said.

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Syrian Expats in Iran Vote in Presidential Election

News Agency nabakhabar — Thu, 20 May 2021 18:41:43 +0000

As Syria is going to hold the 2021 presidential elections next week, the Syrian expatriates living in Iran cast their ballots at their country’s embassy in Tehran on Thursday.

Hundreds of Syrians flocked to their embassy in Tehran on Thursday to cast their votes in the presidential elections.

The polling station at the Syrian Embassy in Iran opened at 9 am local time.

The election inside Syria is set for next Wednesday, May 26.

The three candidates in the race are incumbent President Bashar al-Assad, Abdullah Salloum Abdullah, and Mahmoud Ahmed Merei.

The election will be the second since the civil war erupted in Syria in 2011. The conflict has killed more than 388,000 people and prompted more than half of Syria’s pre-war population to flee their homes.

President Assad has held power for the past 21 years.

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The case for Mitch McConnell to vote to convict Donald Trump

News Agency nabakhabar — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 20:06:32 +0000

On Wednesday afternoon, the House will impeach President Donald Trump for a second time. It is known. The only real drama will be to see how many House Republicans cross the aisle to vote with Democrats to impeach the President.

But once that vote happens, the real drama begins, as the House is expected to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, where a trial will be conducted. (It’s not yet clear whether the House will send the articles immediately or whether they will wait.)

And it’s in the Senate where Republicans will be faced with a very clear choice: Will they vote to convict Trump or, as they did in 2019, acquit him?

What we know is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell believes that impeachment is actually a good thing for his party because it opens the possibility that the GOP can make a very public break from the outgoing President.

But McConnell has yet to commit to voting to convict Trump. He should. Here’s why.

1. Trump is a declining stock. Yes, there remains a decent-sized chunk of the Republican base that remains loyal to Trump. But as the President as made clear over these past few weeks — not to mention the last four years of his presidency — he is absolutely and totally unpredictable and uncontrollable. He will say and do things (and has already said and done things) that neither McConnell nor any Republican with an eye on the medium- and long-term future of the party can possibly condone or be forced to answer for.

If McConnell votes to convict Trump for his role in inciting a riot at the US Capitol, it’s very likely that he would bring enough of his Republican colleagues along with him to ensure the 67 votes necessary for Trump’s removal. (“If Mitch is a yes, he’s done,” one Senate GOP source who asked not to be named told CNN on Tuesday night.) The removal of Trump from office wouldn’t mean that all of the capitulations that McConnell and other Republicans did to Trump over the past four years would be forgotten, of course. But it would sure make it easier to begin putting Trump in the rear-view mirror — and make sure that every single Republican elected official didn’t have to respond to every norm-breaching thing the President does in his last week in office and after he leaves the White House.

2. Trump is costing Republicans money. The slew of announcements from corporate America that they will cease making donations to Republican House members and senators who voted to object to the Electoral College results should be very, very worrisome for McConnell and the rest of the GOP leaders charged with trying to win back the House and Senate majorities over the next few elections. (The fact that Florida Sen. Rick Scott, the chairman of the senatorial campaign arm, voted to object to the electoral results in Pennsylvania is a major problem for Republicans.)

McConnell — not to mention House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (California) — need a way to go to these corporations with something to get them back on board. What better way than to say that the Republican-controlled Senate convicted and removed Trump from office — a sort of mea culpa for the Electoral College objection votes cast earlier this month?

3. Trump’s term is done anyway. Unlike removing Trump a year ago, impeaching and removing him now would have a very little practical effect on the body politic or the inner workings of official Washington. A week from now, Joe Biden is going to be sworn in as the 45th president no matter what the Senate does with the House’s articles of impeachment. And as I’ve noted before, Trump himself has effectively stopped doing the job at this point. He is totally disengaged in the ongoing fight against the coronavirus, choosing instead to nurse his grudges against large tech companies, the media, and Republicans who he believes have betrayed him. The guy has zero interest in keeping the job, and he is almost out of the job anyway.

Yes, as you can tell from the points above, McConnell (and the Republican-led Senate) voting at some point soon to remove Trump from office would be a largely symbolic gesture. But in politics as in life, symbolism matters! Words matter!

As then-candidate for President Barack Obama said in 2008: “It’s true that speeches don’t solve all problems. But what is also true is if we cannot inspire the country to believe again, then it doesn’t matter how many policies and plans we have.”

What McConnell and the Republican Party need is a clear (and, yes, symbolic) break from the last four years of Trump. That won’t fix all the damage Trump — and complicit Republicans — have done to the Republican brand. But what a vote to convict Trump led by McConnell could do is send a signal to both the public and the Republican Party that Trump is not who the GOP is — not now and certainly not going forward.

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House to vote on calling for Pence to invoke 25th Amendment

News Agency nabakhabar — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 20:41:45 +0000

Impeachment ahead, the House on Tuesday will first try to convince the vice president and Cabinet to act even more quickly to remove President Donald Trump from office, warning he is a threat to democracy in the remaining days of his presidency.

House lawmakers are reconvening at the Capitol for the first time since the deadly pro-Trump riot to approve a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to declare the president unable to serve. Pence is not expected to take any such action. The House would next move swiftly to impeach Trump.

“We have to be very tough and very strong right now in defending the Constitution and democracy,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., an author of both pieces of legislation, in an interview.

Trump faces a single charge — “incitement of insurrection” — in the impeachment resolution that the House will begin debating Wednesday, a week before Democrat Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated, Jan. 20.

The unprecedented events, only the first U.S. president to be twice impeached, are unfolding in a nation bracing for more unrest. The FBI has warned ominously of potential armed protests in Washington and many states by Trump loyalists ahead of Biden’s inauguration. In a dark foreshadowing, the Washington Monument was closed to the public and the inauguration ceremony on the west steps of the Capitol will be off-limits to the public.

It all added up to stunning final moments for Trump’s presidency as Democrats and a growing number of Republicans declare he is unfit for office and could do more damage after inciting a mob that violently ransacked the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday.

A Capitol police officer died from injuries suffered in the riot, and police shot a woman during the violence. Three others died in what authorities said were medical emergencies.

Late Monday, the entire Congressional Hispanic Caucus, all 34 members, unanimously agreed to support impeachment, calling for Trump’s immediate removal.

“It is clear that every moment Trump remains in office, America is at risk,” said a statement from the caucus, led by Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Ca. It said Trump “must be held accountable” for his actions.

‘Vote your conscience’

Democrats aren’t the only ones who say Trump needs to go.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., encouraged House GOP colleagues late Monday to “vote your conscience,” according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private call. She has spoken critically of Trump’s actions but has not said publicly how she will vote.

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania joined GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska over the weekend in calling for Trump to “go away as soon as possible.”

Pence and Trump met late Monday for the first time since the Capitol attack and had a “good conversation” pledging to continue working for the remainder of their terms, said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

Pence has given no indication he would proceed with invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. No member of the Cabinet has publicly called for Trump to be removed from office through the 25th Amendment process.

As security tightened, Biden said Monday he was “not afraid” of taking the oath of office outside at the Capitol.

As for the rioters, Biden said, “It is critically important that there’ll be a real serious focus on holding those folks who engaged in sedition and threatening the lives, defacing public property, caused great damage — that they be held accountable.”

Biden said he’s had conversations with senators ahead of a possible impeachment trial, which some have worried would cloud the opening days of his administration.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer was exploring ways to immediately convene the Senate for the trial as soon as the House acts, though Republican leader Mitch McConnell would need to agree. The president-elect suggested splitting the Senate’s time, perhaps “go a half day on dealing with impeachment, a half-day on getting my people nominated and confirmed in the Senate, as well as moving on the package” for more COVID relief.

As Congress resumes, an uneasiness swept government. Another lawmaker, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., announced Tuesday she had tested positive for COVID-19 after sheltering during the siege.

Many lawmakers may choose to vote by proxy rather than come to Washington, a process that was put in place last year during the COVID-19 crisis to limit the health risks of travel.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has discouraged GOP lawmakers from using the proxy option. But during a call with House GOP lawmakers, he loosened his strict opposition for this week’s votes, according to a Republican granted anonymity to discuss the private call.

Among Trump’s closest allies in Congress, McCarthy said in a letter to colleagues that “impeachment at this time would have the opposite effect of bringing our country together.”

He said he would review possible censure of the president. But House Republicans are split and a few may vote to impeach.

Democrats say they have the votes for impeachment. The impeachment bill from Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Ted Lieu of California, Raskin of Maryland and Jerrold Nadler of New York draws from Trump’s own false statements about his election defeat to Biden.

Judges across the country, including some nominated by Trump, have repeatedly dismissed cases challenging the election results, and former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump ally, has said there was no sign of widespread fraud.

The impeachment legislation also details Trump’s pressure on state officials in Georgia to “find” him more votes, as well as his White House rally ahead of the Capitol siege, in which he encouraged thousands of supporters last Wednesday to “fight like hell” and march to the building.

The mob overpowered police, broke through security lines and windows and rampaged through the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to scatter as they were finalizing Biden’s victory over Trump in the Electoral College.

While some have questioned impeaching the president so close to the end of his term, Democrats and others argue he must be prevented from holding future public office.

There is precedent for pursuing impeachment after an official leaves office. In 1876, during the Ulysses Grant administration, War Secretary William Belknap was impeached by the House the day he resigned, and the Senate convened a trial months later. He was acquitted.

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