Al Hayat wrote today about the failure of political parties to nominate women for the upcoming parliamentary elections in light of the non-inclusion of the women representation quota in the new electoral law. Reflecting the number of announced names or those leaked from the anticipated lists, the newspaper concluded that women candidates are few. The Future Movement, for example, has not yet revealed its electoral lists to help determine the number of women nominated, but should MP Bahiya Hariri be a recurrent candidate, the Future affiliates should expect the nomination of more than one woman, especially considering premier Hariri’s pledges to support women and young people to this effect. In its analysis, Al Hayat said the situation with other parties is not better. According to the Free Patriotic Movement’s leaked names, it does not seem that it will give much room for women, as MP Alan Aoun lamented: “Unfortunately, the number of women nominees at hand are but a few.” On the other hand, while the Lebanese Forces Party secretary general disclosed that the LF electoral lists will include more than one woman, the Progressive Socialist Party has already decided on its nominees and which do not include any female nominee. To date, Al Hayat went on to say, the House Speaker can boast that he was the first politician to officially declare his recruitment of a woman candidate (minister Inaya Ezzedine) on Amal Movement’s list in the South, while for Hizbullah, the newspaper added, things are clear about the exclusion of women from elections, as publicly stated by Hizbullah head, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah. (Al Hayat, February 27, 2018)
