Does Hezbollah Buy Votes?
One can’t be absolutely sure of practically anything in Lebanon these days but not according to residents in the Hezbollah Haret Hreik neighborhood between Shatila and Burj Barajneh Palestinian Refugee Camps. “That would be so funny! I wish they did!” the scintillating late teen chador-clad cashier at the neighborhood Halifee sandwich restaurant commented to this observer. “Hezbollah is more likely to ask voters for a charity donation at the voting place than to pay people to vote. I want you to know that Hezbollah supporters have the highest voting rate in Lebanon because they are motivated to do their ‘national duty’. I want to vote and I hope that the Parliament will immediately lower the voting age from 21 years to 18 years as Sayeed Hassan Nassrallah proposed during his Martyr’s Day speech last week.” According to an election analyst at Beirut’s, Notre Dame University – Louaize, founded by the Maronite Order of the Holy Virgin Mary, Parliament will likely agree. Voting analysts ca
