Concerns are rising among the Lebanese voters regarding the person in charge of collecting the votes from the Lebanese diaspora for allegedly being a member of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) or having close ties to its leader Gebran Bassil.
There have been also comments on social media, notably Reddit, that she is “not even part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
However, Pascale Dahrouj is indeed the consultant for the Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib and is among the officials tasked with the responsibility of collecting the diaspora votes.
A source of 961News at the Ministry informed us that she does work for the Minister’s office, stating that “she’s counted as one of Gebran Bassil’s people in the office, he put her in that position.”
Dahrouj sparked interest on Reddit after voters questioned her credibility once her name was dropped during an episode of “Its About Time” hosted by Marcel Ghanem on MTV.
A heated conversation started over the phone with Minister Bou Habib when he accused the media of mocking the ministry. It was followed by Ghanem shutting down the call and sending a line of questioning to his guest in the studio, the Minister of Interior and Municipalities Bassam Mawlawi.
The questioning was about the personnel tasked with overlooking the voting process for the Lebanese abroad. Mawlawi answered by stating that the task falls on Pascale Dahrouj, bringing Marcel Ghanem to question her role and her relation to the ministry.
Ghanem asked, “What does this have to do with Pascale Dahrouj? She doesn’t work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and she represents the Free Patriotic Movement in the ministry.”
He went on to question, “She has ties to the Free Patriotic Movement. Why is she running the election process for the Lebanese abroad?”
The FPM has been a strong part of the ruling body these past years. Its leader Gebran Bassil, who is a Hezbollah ally and a controversial figure since the onset of the Lebanese Revolution, is running again in the elections.
Hence, the news of Dahrouj’s alleged ties to him and his party has been a heated topic of concern ever since that TV program.
The Lebanese by the majority are looking to free themselves and their country from the iron grip of the ruling politicians that have brought Lebanon to its current multiple-crisis disaster.
Trust in the current ruling politicians has been long lost and openly proclaimed, as witnessed in the countless protests since October 2019. People have been eagerly waiting for these elections to cast their votes, hoping for a major change that could save them and their country.
