Can The 15 May Elections Pull Lebanon by Its Bootstraps?

ALBAWABA - Its all on the social media. The Lebanese parliamentary elections are to take place on 15 May 2022. This is being confirmed by the Lebanese Minister of Interior Bassam Mawlawi.

He has just initialled the dates for the next election in decree. So the year 2022 has been confirmed as one big election fever for Lebanon despite the economic crisis the country is reeling under.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres  was last week in Lebanon. He said:  “Free and fair parliamentary elections, held on time in 2022, will be an essential opportunity for the people to make their voices heard.” And they will make their voices hard as strongly as possible.

Lebanese President Aoun, Prime Minister Mikati, and Speaker Nabbih Berri promised that they would support holding parliamentary polls by May next year and as confirmed by Guterres. Apparently they are all in favour of having the polls which could introduce more determined politicians to get Lebanon out of its crisis.

Already there has been much social media talk on the issue that is likely to continue for a while. One suggests France should send international forces to "...run the affairs of the Lebanese state, hold parliamentary elections in a democratic manner, and provide food, medicine, health, water and electricity, because Lebanon as a state no longer exists."

Another puts it this way: "We urge the UN to keep a close eye on Lebanon, extend their mission to help curb smuggling across its borders and....ensure that free and fair parliamentary elections are held on time in 2022, under their umbrella."