The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) is an NGO that aims to raise the standards of elections in Lebanon. LADE also monitors all types of elections to make sure no one is breaking the law. The NGO officially reported that over 7000 violations happened during the parliamentary election.
#1 Violation of the electoral media blackout
During the media blackout (al samt al entikhabi), candidates, publishers, and broadcasters should not publish, broadcast or transmit political advertising. However, a lot of political parties broke the law.
#2 Fights broke out at polling stations
A lot of fights broke out at polling stations across Lebanon during the election and even after.
#3 One person died due to celebratory fire
Shots fired in #Tripoli and #Baalbek; one dead, several injured in #Akkar
— LBCI Lebanon News EN (@LBCI_News_EN) May 6, 2018
Even though many people die because of celebratory gunfire every year, some people seem not to care about the damage that it causes and keep firing into the air whenever they want to celebrate. A 21-year-old man named Ahmad Al Achkar died after a severe injury in the head. Our sincere condolences go out to his loved ones. Check the laws concerting celebratory gunfire
.
#4 People got paid to vote for candidates
It’s not surprising anymore. This video shows a man bribing voters in Tripoli. The same violation happened in other cities as well.
#5 A candidate seems to have been cheated from winning
Sunday evening, the candidate for the Christian minority’s seat in Beirut I Joumana Haddad “announced her victory based on preliminary results,” according to
. Yesterday, news emerged that Haddad may have lost her seat to Antoine Pano due to an alleged fraud that occurred in the polling station. Pano is a candidate for the Free Patriotic Movement. Haddad officially lost her seat after the Minister of Interior and Municipalities Nouhad Machnouk announced the names of the winning candidates.
#6 Some ballot boxes arrived late to Lebanon
In yesterday’s press conference, Nouhad Machnouk assured that the ballot boxes were not lost, but the delivery took longer than expected.
