Salam: Parity Strengthens Beirut and the Country

Prime Minister Tammam Salam emphasized on Monday the need for parity and partnership in the municipal elections because it fortifies Beirut and the country as a whole, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

“There is a need to provide equal sharing and participation in the voting process in the municipal elections, because it provides the requirements for permanent national balance and strengthens Beirut and the nation as a whole,” he told the daily in an interview.

On the low turnout in Beirut during Sunday's municipal elections, Salam said: “It may be related to the overall political atmospheres in the country, particularly that the people were not certain that the elections will take place and therefore did not prepare themselves,” he added.

On Sunday, Lebanese voters headed to the polls for the first time in six years to take part in the municipal elections including in Beirut.

It is the first election of any kind in Lebanon since the last municipal polls in 2010, in a country with a deeply divided political scene that has not had a president for the past two years nor voted for a parliament since 2009.

By the time polls closed at 1600 GMT turnout in the capital was weak, Interior Minister Nouhad Mashnouq had said.

He told reporters that turnout in Beirut was estimated at around 20 percent while it was much higher in the Bekaa region, dominated by Hizbullah, at around 50 percent.