Nasrallah Expects 'Paid Campaign' against Hizbullah Candidates

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced Monday the names of his party's candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections, as he warned of a “paid” social media campaign against them.

“Everyone knows that some are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to tarnish the reputation and image of Hizbullah and its leaders and officials. There are attempts to spread rumors about leaders from Hizbullah and nowadays the electronic armies of Israel and the Gulf are carrying out attacks on us in order to incite the public opinion against us,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech dedicated to announcing the names of the candidates.

“As of tonight, we expect a certain electronic campaign against our candidates to tarnish their image. We are not claiming that we are offering people infallible candidates, but we have scrutinized our files and candidates very well,” Nasrallah added.

He also announced that from now on, Hizbullah's MPs will not be nominated for ministerial portfolios.

“Throughout the past period, our ministers have also been members of parliament, shouldering heavy ministerial and parliamentary responsibilities. Today we have preferred to distribute the responsibilities and to separate parliamentary posts from ministerial posts,” Nasrallah explained.

He added that, accordingly, Sport and Youth Minister Mohammed Fneish “will be in the next government and will not be nominated for a parliamentary seat.”

Nasrallah also revealed that MPs Hussein al-Moussawi and Bilal Farhat will not be among the party's candidates.

He said Moussawi will be replaced because he personally “has decided to quit parliamentary work and resume his duties as a Hizbullah official.”

Farhat will meanwhile be replaced by an AMAL Movement candidate in the Baabda district as per an agreement with the movement.

Nasrallah also noted that Monday's announcement only involves the names of candidates who are members of Hizbullah and that the names of “friends backed by Hizbullah” would be announced at a later stage. Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem had recently announced that Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed – a controversial ex-General Security chief – will be on the party's electoral list in the Baalbek-Hermel district.

Nasrallah concluded his speech by announcing Hizbullah's candidates as follows:

- Hussein al-Hajj Hassan, Ali al-Moqdad, Ibrahim Ali al-Moussawi and Ehab Hamadeh for the Baalbek-Hermel district

- Nawwaf al-Moussawi and Hussein Jishi for the second district in the South

- Mohammed Raad, Hassan Fadlallah and Ali Fayyad for the third district in the South

- Anwar Hussein Jomaa for the Zahle district

- Ali Ammar for the Baabda district

- Hussein Mohammed Zoaiter for the Jbeil-Keserwan district

- Amin Sherri for Beirut's second district