Leader of Lebanese forces unofficially bans Syrians from turning out to vote

Syrians outside the country have been called to the polls at their respective embassies. In Lebanon, buses transported Syrian voters to the embassy in the Baabda district. Many of them arrived with shouts of support for Shi'a leader Bashar al-Assad, holding pictures of the leader and portraits of him. Meanwhile, the streets leading to the embassy were beginning to fill with voters, who were crowding into the streets to create a throng. The Lebanese army and embassy security workers have struggled to control the long lines of voters, even grouping them into smaller groups.

Voters have been arriving at the embassy gates while chanting pro-Assad songs. The Shiite president is expected to easily beat the other two electoral candidates, Abdullah Salum Abdullah and Mahmoud Ahmad Meri, who were accepted by Syrian Supreme Constitutional Court Judge Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, a member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath party. The other 51 applications for candidacy were rejected by the court for 'not meeting the constitutional and legal requirements to stand for election'. 

Al-Assad's more than likely victory would give the leader his third term in office for seven more years, according to the 2012 constitution.

However, these polls are fraught with high tension between the Lebanese themselves and the Syrians. The leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, has unofficially banned Syrians settled in Lebanon from voting. In this regard, the leader has been firm and aggressive, going so far as to call on the authorities to publish the names of Syrians who go to the polls to vote for al-Assad. Geagea is in favour of Syrians who vote for the Baathist party returning to Syria and "joining the regime-controlled areas". 

"The Lebanese are preparing to vote in the farcical tragedy called the Syrian presidential elections at the Syrian embassy in Hazmie," Geagea said, noting that "people who have left the country forced by the regime will return to press the leader".

Following Samir's messages, groups of Lebanese attacked a convoy of pro-Assad Syrian voters on the Nahr highway on their way to the Syrian embassy in Yarzé. According to the initial assessment, seven people have been injured and numerous cars in the convoy have been looted. Similar clashes were also observed on the Jounieh road in the north. 

The voting in Lebanon comes in the midst of the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has been joined by the Lebanese Islamic Resistance Movement (Hezbollah), once again showing its support for Hamas by launching rockets at Israel. According to Israeli sources, two of them have landed in the sea, one has been intercepted and another has landed in an open area. 

Lebanon is home to 1.5 million Syrian refugees, half a million of whom are registered with the UN.  The authorities in Beirut continue to deny linking the return of Syrian refugees to a political solution to the Syrian war. On the other hand, Lebanese leaders continue to blame the socio-economic and financial crisis they are experiencing on the presence of refugees.