NNA – “Strong Republic” bloc member, Antoine Habashi, addressed during a press conference held at the Press Club to the Lebanese in general and Muslims in particular, by congratulating the happy Eid al-Fitr, and said: “I hope that we have overcome the reality we live in today and that we will have come out of our crisis in the coming year’s holidays.” And this matter is decided by our people because the power is in their hands.”
He added: “The electoral battle today in Baalbek-Hermel has recently turned into a round of violence and intimidation instead of being a battle of democratic freedom, hence the necessity of holding this press conference in order to clarify what is happening in the course of the electoral process in Baalbek-Hermel, and from there I will enter On the past elections and all the abuses and fraud that they witnessed, and the intimidation that is taking place in the region with the candidates on the list of building the state and the people of the region, holding the Ministry of Interior and the security services responsible for what is happening.
He asked, “What scares them until they started the elections in this stressful psychological atmosphere,” and stopped at what one of his colleagues in the House of Representatives said, as in the parliamentary committees, that there are 4 resistance-friendly lists in Baalbek-Hermel, but there is a list of state-building that is considered an agent of the Americans, and he refused. “Categorizing the people and the people of the region who gave Hezbollah a lot,” considering that “it is the agents who pay only 10 percent of their group in fresh dollars, while leaving the other 90 percent in poverty to suffer from their living and health conditions.”
Habashi held Hezbollah “responsible for what is happening and the responsibility of any drop of blood that falls.” He also held the Lebanese state responsible for the integrity of the electoral process, asking “how can the state and the government not take a position on what is happening with regard to the security of citizens, where is the role of the Public Prosecution, and where is the role of the judiciary.” .
He pointed out that “candidates have the right to withdraw from the lists, knowing that Sheikh Abbas Al-Gohary was the one who took charge of negotiating with them, but a large number of them specifically sat with me and were eager to contest these elections, but the way they withdrew from the battle and read the withdrawal statements and avoided looking at the camera, indicates Clearly how withdrawals take place and under what circumstances,” he added, “What is new in the battle is that Hezbollah has given its opponents one or two million pounds, on condition that they do not go to vote.”
He continued: “We have in Baalbek-Hermel a university doctor who is proud of him, Dr. Hussein Raad, while they boast about the patent of the syntheses, and act as if the people of this region do not understand anything. Dr. Raad went to offer his condolences to the mother of the head of the Hezbollah bloc in Baalbek-Hermel in Parliament He is performing the duty of condolences, and inside the Husseiniya he is beaten, attacked and attacked. Is this how our people are rewarded for attacking them?” The funny thing is that the assailant complained to the security forces about Raad, so he was summoned to listen to his testimony.
Habashi commented on the excesses of the 2018 elections, stating that “in most villages, there was no buffer, and every voter close to Hezbollah was accompanied, and the ballot boxes disappeared, and then the official results came with a vote of 102 percent in them,” rejecting the fraud that took place.
And he stressed that “the abuses and fraud in the 2018 elections against the Dignity and Development List, which ran in the elections on that day, were significant, and this matter was directed to the Election Supervision Body, the European Union Election Monitoring Committee and the Ministry of the Interior, which were remiss, amounting to conspiracy.” He stated that she was able to win two deputies, and that if there had been no fraud and intimidation, she would have won 3 deputies, rejecting what is happening today, and demanding control of fraud.
He continued: “Hezbollah does not respect the people of Baalbek-Hermel and its clans and does not accept any different opinion. What is happening is directed against the Shiite opposition voice that formed in 2018, 9.7%, or about 17,000 votes, and therefore there is a desire for people to deliver a Shiite representative from the opposition environment to Hezbollah.” Because delivering this voice to the parliament means that the people of the region will no longer need to wish Sheikh Naim Qassem and mock him for the pain and suffering of the people of his environment.”
He believed that “withdrawing the identities carried out by Hezbollah aims to cancel the voice of everyone who wants to vote against it,” considering that “what is happening is an existential abolition war against everyone who says no to Hezbollah.”
In response to a question, Habashi said: “Last time the opposition vote reached 32 percent, and this time it will be from 30 to 40 percent, so we must protect the electoral process and oblige the state to play its role. Your voice in Baalbek-Hermel is louder than any weapon’s sound.”
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