Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on Sunday it expects that parliamentary elections will take place on time. The statement came just days after Saad Hariri announced his withdrawal from politics.
Saad al-Hariri, Lebanon's leading Sunni Muslim politician
and three times a former prime minister, said that he would boycott the vote
and would not run in the coming polls.
Sheikh
Naim Qassem on election
Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy leader of the heavily armed
Hezbollah said, "All indications are that the parliamentary elections will
take place on time.” Maronite Christian patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, a Hezbollah critic, said that
Hariri's withdrawal from politics must not be used as an excuse to call for a
delay.
Hezbollah's adversaries said that they hope to overturn the
majority won by the group and allies including President Michel Aoun's
Christian Free Patriotic Movement in 2018.
Lebanon’s economic crisis
Lebanon’s economiccrisis deepened after the 2020 Beirut Port tragic accident. The economic crisis
pushed more than half the population into poverty in Lebanon. Despite this,
Hezbollah does not expect the election to yield a result much different to
2018. Reportedly, the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group and its allies
demanded to remove the main investigator of the 2020 tragic explosion.
Hezbollah is an Iran-backed group that has a well-armed militia. Bechara
Boutros Al-Rai has been sharply critical of the Hezbollah group. He accused
politicians and said they were behind obstructing the judicial investigation
into the Beirut port explosion.
Reportedly, Hezbollah opinion polls across Lebanon showed
that the results of the election will be close to the make-up of the current
parliament. Qassem revealed this information.
According to Reuters, Hariri’s decision to withdraw from
politics leaves behind him a fractured Sunni community. Some analysts believe
Sunni allies of Hezbollah may be able to win more seats in the upcoming
election.
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