With six weeks to go before the Lebanese parliamentary elections, The New York Times is reporting a significant amount of money being spent on vote-buying. The June election is seen as a battle between factions allied with the West, like the March 14th Coalition, and factions allied with Iran and Syria, such as Hizballah and AMAL, respectively. As a consequence, Lebanon is witnessing vast amounts of cash being thrown around to drum up votes.
According to the NY Times article, cases of cold calling have been reported where the voter is offered a substantial sum of cash for his or her vote. In some cases, Lebanese abroad are offered free airfare and cash to come back to Lebanon and vote. However, most of the activity seems centered around heads of clans that can deliver reliable votes in large numbers.
Although few admit to external patronage, many believe that Hizballah is receiving major funding from Iran, AMAL from Syria and March 14, from Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has been suspicious and critical of creeping Iranian influence in the region and is spending a fortune to halt Hizballah’s progress in Lebanon:
“We are putting a lot into this,” said one adviser to the Saudi government, who added that the Saudi contribution was likely to reach hundreds of millions of dollars in a country of only four million people. “We’re supporting candidates running against Hezbollah, and we’re going to make Iran feel the pressure.”
That is a substantial sum of money given the size of the country and the population they are targeting, especially when you figure that Iran is probably spending a similar amount.
It is unclear how much effect all of this will have on the election results. If every faction receives substantial amounts of patronage and buys the same amount of votes with it, the end result is the same. But in an election this closely contested, each vote cast and each dollar spent is crucial. If Hizballah wins in the way that the current polls are suggesting, that could tip the fragile balance here resulting in a stronger, more permanent Shiite political presence- and therefore Iranian presence- in Lebanon.
So once again, external rivals are using Lebanon as a battleground to fight for their interests. And while it may be disturbing to learn of such unabashed corruption, at least the “war” is being fought this time, not in the streets, but in the ballot box.
