Archive | Election ’09

+961 claims victory in the 2009 USJ election

The student body election at the Saint Joseph University ended YESTERDAY, however until now I still have no idea about the real winner in this election!

Is it the Lebanese Forces? Is it March 14 coalition? Is it the Free Patriotic Movement? Is it March 8 coalition? Is it the “الزحف الشيعي على جامعة بشير الجميّل” (also known as Hizbullah)? Mickey Mouse maybe!

If you check both of the FPM & Lebanese Forces websites (Tayyar.org & Lebanese-Forces.com) you notice that both parties claim they won the election, and to my amazement none of them tell it was a close competition! They both claim they wiped their rivals!

And to amaze us ever more, the FPM people went to Michael Aoun’s place in Rabieh late last night to celebrate their victory, and the Lebanese Forces people did the same thing at Samir Geagea’s place in Maarab!!

I recall the same thing happened last year in USJ, so I think it’s becoming a ritual there. Few thousands students casting their votes, and it takes forever to come out with an accurate final result. Fuck whoever is responsible for that.

Here’s how the Tayyar.org website looked today morning:

tayyar website

… and here’s how the Lebanese Forces website looked like at the same time.

lebanese forces website

Amusing eh?

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Michael El-Murr threatening a priest

After Jounblat and Arslan’s videos, it’s Michael El-Murr’s turn! In the below video you can hear Michael El-Murr threatening a priest in Metn and admitting that he paid bribery, in addition to illegally using the authority of his son Elias El-Murr in the ministry of defense.

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Honest comment on the Elections

I stumbled upon this photo few minutes ago on Facebook.

khara-3laykon

The paper says:

Shit upon you and this elections, “Banana Republic”
Signature: A good citizen

And who rule the Banana Republic? Monkeyyys! 😀

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Photos from the elections day

So it’s June 7th, the elections day! I went to two areas in the morning, Tarik Al-Jadida and Karantina.

Tarik Al-Jadida was a living hell, people were everywhere around the polling stations, and it took the lady with me around 1 hour and 30 minutes to cast her ballot. On the other hand, it took me 5 minutes to get in and out at the Karantina polling station, and I got back with these photos (You can click to enlarge)

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Hizbullah supporter at Ras El-Nabeh

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Khaled Bin Al-Walid polling station at Kaskas

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Khaled Bin Al-Walid polling station at Kaskas

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The Lebanese army on the way from Kaskas to Tarik Al-Jadida

tarik-jadida
People gathering outside one of the Future Movement stations in Tarik Al-Jadida

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One of the Future Movement ladies giving me a bottle of water while saying

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These two boys thought I’m a journalist (due to my big size cam!) they told me they will be waiting for their image to appear on TV tonight! I said OK!

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Yet another Future Movement station

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This is a polling station at Karantina, no traffic jam there.

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On the way back, Charles Helou road was almost empty

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Chales Helou road again

I wish I was able to take more photos but I was driving at the same time! Not to mention that it is somehow difficult to take photos while army, bodyguards, and internal security forces are all around you!

Anyway, in addition to these photos, I also filmed the whole voting process using my cell phone!! (Illegal??) And I will try to upload it as soon as I can.

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The last sunset

No, I’m not dying tomorrow, but I thought of marking the day before June 7th with a photo, the last sunset before the 2009 elections.

last-sunset

It is the end. The end of the stressful discussions between the colleagues at work, the end of the expensive advertisement campaigns, the end of Marcel Ghanem’s daily talk show “Parliament 2009”, the end of the ping pong games between Aoun and Murr, the end of the irritating convoys, w heik…

Anyway, careful to whom you will be voting tomorrow, and remember that you can vote a white paper if none of the candidates meet your standards.

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Sharek 961

sharek-ya-shrik

Haven’t you heard about Sharek 961 yet?

Sharek 961 is a project where the Lebanese people make the news by sending in reports through several mediums to the website. So wherever you are, you can report to them an electoral incident for example and the news will be displayed on their homepage under “User Feed Stream” along with the geographical location of where the incident has ocurred.

From their About page:

Sharek961 empowers Lebanese citizens to promote transparency by sending in eyewitness reports on all election-related incidents or issues. People across Lebanon can send in reports through SMS, email, and the web.

Sharek961 is intended to improve transparency and accountability through civic participation. Information you send in is made available to all citizens, media outlets, and organizations to view publicly online.

Reaching them to submit a report is so easy, and you can do it via any of the following channels:

  1. Send an e-mail to sharek@sharek961.org
  2. Send an SMS to 71-189118
  3. Send a message on twitter to @sharek961
  4. Fill out this form

I’ll be trying to send them some photos from Beirut on the elections day! How about you?

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Follow the Lebanese elections online

Spending all of my time at work in front of a computer, like almost everybody else, I usually follow the news via the popular Lebanese news websites, i.e. Tayar, NaharNet, Lebanes Forces and the alike…

For the Elections 2009 news I found some dedicated websites that you also can use if you’re interested:

  1. LBC News: Parliament Elections 2009
    Includes up to date news, polls,  forum, and an electoral guide for the voters.
  2. El Nashra
    Includes up to date news, polls, electoral maps, and candidates CV’s.
  3. Lebanese Forces
    Includes up to date news, multimedia, in addition to a list of the Lebanese Forces candidates.
  4. Free Patriotic Movement
    Includes up to date news, and a list of all the opposition’s candidates in Lebanon.
  5. Demotix
    A collaborative project delivering news by Lebanese citizen journalists.
  6. Lebanese Ministry of Interior Affairs
    Includes general information for the voters, in addition to a polling stations locator.
  7. Lebanon Files (Thanks to Dania)
    Up to date news on the elections.
  8. Lebanese Elections 2009 (Thanks to Liliane)
    A foreign blogger posting personal analysis and updates on the elections.
  9. Elections LB
    Contains general inf ormation for the voters.

Have you got any more websites that I can add to the list?

6

Lebanese Forces TV ads

A friend sent me 4 videos from the Lebanese Forces for their 2009 Lebanese electoral campaign. And I liked how they were executed so much. They have finally released a match to the Free Patriotic Movement ads campaign, though the FPM’s campaign was mainly on billboards, but I’m talking about quality here.

I still don’t know why they still have not made it to any Lebanese TV channel yet…!

I loved this one the most, and I liked how the camera is zooming out in a 3D style. The video begins by showing a destroyed bus, probably the bus of Ain El-Rimmeineh which marked the start of the Lebanese civil war, then focuses on Bachir Gemayel one of the most important Christian figures and the former leader for the Lebanese Forces (unfortunately he was assassinated in 1982 by I don’t know who), then shows a snapshot from the war of Zahleh, followed by images of the Syrian troops on the Lebanese territories, and finally a photo of the Lebanese youth in March 14 2005 followed by the message “10452 (The area of Lebanon) You did not give them your land, don’t give them your vote”. Impressive eh?

The following 3 videos show how life would be if the FPM and his allies (mainly Hizbullah) won the elections.

Update (06/02/2009):
I just noticed the first video on TV tonight. Seem they were hiding their best for the last week of the elections!

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