After a series of clashes and violations and blatant threats and vote cheating, the 2022 parliamentary elections ended with the October 17 Revolution of the people breaking through the stout wall of the parliament and securing seats.
This seems to have come as a shock to some of the old anchored political parties, apparently having underestimated the power of the people and the Thawra.
Mostly worried about their opposed political peers during the race and elections, they now see “the people” becoming their equals in the parliament and realize the loss of their totalitarian power.
One of these parties, in particular, appears unable to process its disappointment, and its campaign for parliament has now turned into a campaign against the people of their own community who did not vote for them.
Hezbollah lost the parliamentary majority, and its partisans are going after those they are proclaiming “traitors.”
The accusation is not new, but a typical intimidation tactic of the Iran-affiliated party the Lebanese have gotten used to these past years when someone and anyone express dislike or disapproval of Hezbollah or points to its blunders or failures.
An alleged Hezbollah supporter was even heard now telling the people who had voted for the opposition to “return and repent to God.”
Translation: “Because you supported falsehood, and you put yourselves with the cheaters, like Geagea and [Fouad] Sanioura and those like them, we don’t know you because of voting secrecy, but God knows you, and if you are from the category of hypocrites, return to God and repent to him.”
Politics and religions tend to merge in Lebanon, even if political alliances fluctuate and shift according to the agendas of the moment.
Hezbollah supporters are now calling supporters of the Lebanese Forces (LF), headed by Samir Geagea, “traitors” and “blasphemous” when their party had “collaborated” with the LF in some electoral lists in some districts in the previous elections.
