A consensus list brokered between rival candidates determined the results of the Order of Engineers elections Sunday in Beirut, while the March 14 coalition emerged triumphant at the order’s Tripoli branch.
In Beirut, Future Movement candidate Khaled Shehab was elected as head of the order with 5,081 votes. The five remaining posts in the body’s council were filled by Elie Rizk from the Free Patriotic Movement, who garnered 5,340 votes, Micheline Wehbe from the Lebanese Forces who had 5,662 votes, Ghaleb Salim from Hezbollah with 5,113 votes, Mustafa Fawwaz from the Amal Movement with 5,339 votes and Ahmad Najem from Al-Masharih al-Islamiya with 3,102 votes.
Elections were held at the order’s Beirut headquarters in Bir Hasan.
Candidates from the Progressive Socialist Party, who had initially sided with March 8 candidates before the consensus list was formed, pulled their names out of the elections.
When The Daily Star went to press the percentage of voter turnout in Beirut had not been released, however, around 37,000 of 40,000 engineers in the Beirut order had paid their annual subscriptions and were eligible to vote.
The decision to favor a consensus list was described by a March 14 MP as an attempt to quell tensions within the order.
“The agreement between March 14 and March 8 groups in the Order of Engineers was meant to improve calm in the country and ease tensions, which might have been provoked with election conflicts,” said MP Mohammad Hajjar, also an engineer.
However, some election hopefuls slammed the agreement.
“Brokering such deals is unacceptable in the Order of Engineers. We fear that such political agreements will become the norm for not only the Order of Engineers but other orders as well,” hopeful Issam Bekdash said in an interview with MTV television.
With 1,002 votes, Bekdash failed to garner a post in order’s council.
Meanwhile, in Tripoli, a coalition of parties led by the March 14 coalition took the top job.
The coalition included Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya and supporters of former Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Mohammad Safadi.
Marios Beaini from the Lebanese Forces was elected the head of the Tripoli Order of Engineers with 855 votes. Positions on the board were allotted to George Mansour with 466 votes, Fouad Daher with 438 votes, Elias Rizk with 737 votes, Antoine Saad with 758 votes, Mohammad Ayoubi with 966 votes and Mohammad Helou with 856 votes.
Mirna Ayoubi was designated a reservist member.
Manal Ayoubi, Tareq al-Soufi and Salah Sharaoui were elected by acclamation as board members for the Pension Fund.
Following the election results, Beaini thanked all those who voted for him and expressed their opinions in a free and democratic manner.
The NNA reported that 1,852 engineers in Tripoli participated in the elections out of the 6,470 who were eligible to vote.
