Canadians fly on free tickets to vote in Lebanese election
Last Updated: Monday, June 1, 2009 | 4:11 AM MT
CBC News
Some Calgary residents of Lebanese descent check in for their connecting flight to London on their way to Beirut on Friday. (CBC) Canadians who are flying to Lebanon on free plane tickets provided by party supporters could tip the difference in a close parliamentary election in that country.
Corporate sponsors are paying for hundreds of supporters of the pro-Western Future Movement in Calgary and in other Canadian cities to vote on June 7, CBC News has learned. Dual citizens must be physically present in Lebanon to cast a ballot in its elections.
"This is a big election, and it is a lot of people who [would] love to vote but they cannot vote because of funds … so those companies are making it easy for them," said Faouzi Salem, a Future Movement co-ordinator in Calgary.
"There [are] sponsors in the world who [pay] for those tickets … European companies, Middle Eastern companies who … they would love to see free Lebanon, independent Lebanon. They want to see democratic government in the future, so they're dedicating all their supports."
'This is shaping up to be the most expensive election of all times, anywhere, per capita. We're talking something that will be more expensive than elections in the U.S.'—Marie-Joelle Zahar, professor
The party has rented an office in a Calgary mosque where volunteers have been working to match people of Lebanese descent with tickets to Beirut.
Sam Hammoud's uncle is one of the people flying to Lebanon for the election.
"It's the sense that I have a say in my own country. I still have ties to my own country, whether I live here or not," said Hammoud.
"He said, 'why not, why not?' So he's going. All he has to do is vote and head right back home to Canada."
Hezbollah trying to increase political influence
The Future Movement is part of a pro-Western alliance, composed mainly of Sunnis, which is trying to wrest political influence away from a Hezbollah-dominated coalition.
An Arabic election banner for Hezbollah, right, reads in part, 'Justice homeland for all its citizens, resist with your vote' as another for the Free Patriotic Movement hangs on the left along the airport highway in Beirut. (Hussein Malla/Associated Press) Hezbollah, listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government, and its allies hold veto power in the current government. The coalition dominated by the heavily armed Shia group is backed by U.S. foes Iran and Syria.
The majority of the 1.5 million people that left Lebanon in the last 30 years — including during the civil war from 1976 to 1990 — for Canada, the United States and Australia oppose Hezbollah, which is why there's such an effort to have their votes counted, said Elias Bejjani, chairman of the Lebanese Canadian Co-ordinating Council in Toronto.
"This is where the focus is on, because we all have still our citizenship and we are all qualified according to the Lebanese constitution to vote," he said.
There are rumours in the Lebanese-Canadian community that the pro-Hezbollah side is also paying to fly supporters to Lebanon for the election.
"The other side too, they're doing the same thing, no? They're taking people from all over the world," said Salem.
Marie-Joelle Zahar, a political science professor at the Université de Montréal and a former journalist who covered the Lebanese civil war, said the election could ring up record-breaking expenditures.
"It is a phenomenal amount of money. This is shaping up to be the most expensive election of all times, anywhere, per capita. We're talking something that will be more expensive than elections in the U.S. That is quite mind-boggling. There's a lot riding on this election internally."
With files from Erin Collins and The Canadian Press
