BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt will not run in the upcoming parliamentary elections for the first time since 1992 as he passes the family’s political legacy to his son Taymour. The PSP submitted applications for 10 candidates from the Democratic Gathering bloc Friday, the party’s media arm Anbaa Online reported. With the new proportional electoral law, the PSP looks set to lose seats in the elections.
In the 2009 elections, Jumblatt’s bloc won 12 seats.
In the predominantly Druze Chouf-Aley district, Jumblatt has submitted candidates for three out of the four possible Druze seats – Taymour Jumblatt, Marwan Hamadeh from Chouf and Akram Chehayeb from Aley.
The fourth Druze seat has been left uncontested, in a sign he is leaving the way for Minister of State for the Displaced Talal Arslan.
“We always leave this seat empty for [Arslan] and communication is ongoing between the two sides – we will wait for him now,” a PSP source told The Daily Star. “ The ball is now in his court.”
None of the PSP’s announced candidates are women.
MP Henry Helou will be the only Maronite candidate for Aley, despite the PSP having two MPs in the area previously. MPs Nehme Tohme and Elie Aoun will run for an Orthodox and Maronite seat in Chouf, while Bilal Abdullah will hope to succeed MP Alaaeddine Terro as the PSP’s Sunni MP in the mountain.
In Baabda, Hadi Aboulhosn looks to take over from MP Fadi Awar as the district’s sole Druze lawmaker.
In the West Bekaa-Rashaya district, where Jumblatt had a Druze and Orthodox MP, only a Druze candidate will run from the area this year with MP Wael Abu Faour.
In Beirut II, longtime MP Ghazi Aridi will no longer occupy the Druze seat as Faysal al-Sayegh is this year’s candidate for the PSP.
It is noteworthy that Anbaa mentioned that former Culture Minister Naji Boustani had already submitted his candidacy.
Asked if he was a PSP Maronite candidate for Chouf, the PSP source sounded optimistic. “There is almost a full understanding between him [Boustani] and the PSP.”