After the nomination of lawyer Bushra Khalil and Dina Halawi for the parliamentary by-elections projected for September 15 in the southern city of Tyre to elect a successor for the resigning MP Nawaf Mousawi (https://bit.ly/2mbpSxL), , Al-Akhbar newspaper reported the withdrawal of Khalil on September 6 and Halawi on September 4, leading to the uncontested victory of Hizbullah candidate, Hassan Ezzedine. According to Al Akhbar, the announcement of withdrawal of Khalil the independent candidate, came after her meeting with Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, who conveyed a message from Hizbullah head, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, advising her to withdraw. But while she stressed that she could not reject Nasrallah’s request, Khalil clarified that her withdrawal was conditional, pending demands for reform and an anticipated adoption by Hizbullah of a popular parliament which will press to re-claim the rights of citizens and fight to stop all shifty laws, draft bills or arrangements engineered in the legislature or the cabinet. Khalil revealed that she agreed with Qassem on a coordination mechanism to this effect. For her part, Halawi, the Civil Society and Communist Party nominee, told Al Akhbar that her withdrawal came as a surprise to the party which recruited her, as she announced it on Facebook, as her family opined following the latest Israeli assault on the Southern Suburbs. (Al Akhbar, September 7, 2019)