Hezbollah's political candidates fared well in its strongholds in southern Lebanon in the final round of that country's municipal elections on Saturday, but the turnout of voters remained low.
Hezbollah ran in the elections in an alliance with the Amal group of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the low turnout was attributed to the anger of voters over the prolonged war and the violence.
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A member of Hezbollah who lost fingers in Israel's pagers' detonation casts his vote in Lebanon municipal elections
(Photo: Mohammed Zaatari / AP )
3 View gallery
A woman holds a poster with images of Hassan Nasrallah near a polling station in Lebanon
(Photo: Mohammed Zaatari / AP)
An official told the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Akhbar newspaper that the low participation in the elections "demands a new assessment of what is happening in towns and villages," and added that there were internal conflicts in several communities.
“The will of life is stronger than death and the will of construction is stronger than destruction,” President Joseph Aoun said during a tour of south Lebanon Saturday. He told reporters in his hometown of Aaichiyeh that he voted for the first time in 40 years.
Residents of villages and towns on the border with Israel, including the village of Kfar Kila that was almost completely destroyed during the war, cast their ballots at polling stations set up in the nearby city of Nabatiyeh. Residents of other border villages cast their ballots in the port city of Tyre.
“Southerners are proving again that they are with the choice of resistance,” Hezbollah legislator Ali Fayad, who represents border villages, said in Nabatiyeh.
The main concern during the elections was over possible IDF strikes or an escalation of violence that would disrupt the vote, after strikes on Thursday, which sources in the Amal Party claimed were an Israeli attempt to interfere in the elections and intimidate voters. No IDF strikes took place on Saturday while voting in South Lebanon was underway.