Lebanon expects to hold parliamentary elections on May 6, 2018. Given the last time Lebanese voted in a parliamentary election was in 2009, Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) organized an ongoing series of events related to the elections.
The Department of Media Studies (DMS) in the Faculty of Humanities (FH) planned its first event of the election cycle on February 5, 2018, titled, "Elections 2018 from a Media Perspective," presented by Dr. Ziad Abdel Samad, former secretary-general of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE).
For his part, Dr. Abdel Samad said, “Citizens' duties are to comply with laws, pay taxes, participate in elections, and defend the homeland when needed.” He explained the difference between the majoritarian electoral system, and proportional representation, electoral system and how to vote.
The Faculty of Law and Political Science (FLPS), in cooperation with the Creative Commons Society and University Initiative for Electoral Reform (UIFER), organized on February 26, 2018, an event titled, “Youth and Elections in Lebanon.”
In 2018, 645,000 individuals (21 percent of voters) will be voting for the first time. Said Sanadiki, LADE electoral training expert, explained how the new Proportional Electoral (PR) system impacts Lebanese youth and their families. He focused on the significance of the electoral list system, which will benefit independent and alternative lists for the first time. Combined with the preferential voting system, this spring’s elections promise to be more competitive than any other in recent memory. Sanadiki encouraged #NDUers to discuss the new electoral system, which is similar to the Student Union electoral system at NDU in many ways, with their friends and family when they return home on the weekend.
The electoral reform group Take Action carried out an Exit Poll of participants in the seminar, surveying students as they left Monday’s event. They found that #NDUers are some of the best informed in the country.
FLPS, UIFER, and the Creative Commons Society will also be organizing a further series of events on campus leading up to the parliamentary elections on May 6, 2018.
Act for Human Rights (ALEF) Executive Director George Ghali introduced #NDUers on Tuesday February 27, 2018 to the basics of media monitoring for the Lebanese parliamentary elections this year, in an event titled, “Monitoring Election Campaigns.” A graduate of the FLPS at NDU, Ghali described both the technical social science skills necessary to survey partisan positions reflecting hate speech as well as the political background for their work. Hate speech is not only a violation of basic human rights, according to ALEF. Rooted in “identity politics,” attacks against individuals and groups are based on who they are, as opposed to what they do. Thus they undermine the very societal cohesion necessary for free, fair, and competitive democratic elections.
During past elections cycles, such as the 2016 municipal elections and 2009 parliamentary elections, NDU participated enthusiastically in the electoral monitoring process. FLPS and ALEF will be training students to play an active role in this year’s election cycle, which promises to be more challenging for civil society players because of the complexity of the new election law.
The events will be included in elections 2018 from a media perspective, involvement of youth in the current political scene, POS 382 Youth and Elections in Lebanon, monitory Elections Campaign and politics and implication of electoral systems.
As per the first event and from a media perspective, the Interior Ministry released a set of guidelines on March 8, 2018 that aim to ensure “neutrality” in the media coverage of candidates and lists in Lebanon’s upcoming parliamentary elections.
In line with Article 73 of Electoral Law 44, passed in 2017, the regulations demand that “official media” sources avoid “carrying out any activity which may be construed as supporting a [particular] candidate or list” at the expense of any others, a press release from the ministry read.
Candidates and lists are also now obliged to submit a request to the Electoral Supervisory Commission in order to place advertisements in “official media” outlets.
It is officially election season in Lebanon, and the air is quickly filling up with the chatter of candidates, programs, videos, publicity stunts and alliances. It is high time to embark on the road to parliamentary polls!