‘October 17’ Protests Target EDL Offices
As Lebanon’s protest against the ruling elite approaches its third month, protesters targeted on Thursday the offices of Electricity du Liban over worsening power outages with the country in the grip of political and economic turmoil.
Protesters staged sit-in near EDL premises in Tripoli’s Bahsas area to protest aggravating power outages in a country already plagued with chronic rationing.
They burned tires near the premises entrance preventing access for employees.
The Lebanese army and security forces were heavily deployed in the area, said the National News Agency.
Another group blocked a road leading to Tripoli’s entrance from the south that triggered heavy traffic, said NNA.
Lebanon is without a cabinet and in the grips of a deepening economic crisis after an almost three-month-old protest movement forced Saad Hariri to stand down as prime minister on October 29.
Lebanese have been protesting in main squares across the country and rallying near the government institutions against corruption and mismanagement.
Anti-government protests continued after Hariri's resignation, while political parties negotiated for weeks before nominating Hassan Diab, a professor and former education minister, to replace him on December 19.
Political parties have failed so far to agree on the form of a government, and protesters accuse the political class of seeking personal gains and draining the state resources through patronage and clientelism.
Source: Naharnet
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