Accusations of bribery and intimidation marred Sunday’s parliamentary by-election in Metn, which saw a controversial surprise announcement by  Interior Minister Elias Murr that private voting was optional.
According to initial counts, Myrna Murr, the minister’s sister, was poised to win the election by a slight margin of around  500 votes over her uncle, Gabriel Murr, with Ghassan Mokheiber trailing far behind.
But Gabriel Murr declared victory on Sunday night, claiming he had a 1,600-vote lead.
The preliminary turnout, according to Elias Murr, showed that around 70,000 of the Metn’s 155,000 registered voters had cast their ballots, a relatively high number for a by-election.
Elias Murr’s surprise came in the form of a circular instructing the heads of polling stations to tell voters that the use of the voting curtain, to ensure a secret ballot, was optional. He also accused his uncle, Gabriel Murr, of having bribed voters and warned that the matter would come before the judiciary.
President Emile Lahoud, a native of Baabdat, went behind the curtain before casting his vote at his town’s post office.
“I don’t play the game of winner or loser in a parliamentary election,” he said, declining to reveal his choice for the Orthodox parliamentary seat, which was made vacant by the death of veteran MP Albert Mokheiber.
As for the curtain issue, Lahoud said he was “happy” to respond to a question about Elias Murr’s performance in supervising the elections. He said the “Constitutional Council, and not the president, has the deciding voice on the matter,” a reference to the council’s earlier decisions that secret voting was optional, with the issue depending on whether the failure to use the curtain impacted the results.
Beit Mery saw a calm election day, and Ghassan Mokheiber, who cast his vote in the morning, denied rumors that voting for him was a “losing card” since he was seen as the underdog.
“We’re still at the heart of the battle, although there are some parties who are trying to wipe us out,” he told reporters.
He said he endorsed Article 49 of the Election Law, which obliges voters to go behind the curtain to prepare ballots, and said he disagreed with the Constitutional Council’s decision.
Speaking in Jdeideh, Carlos Edde, the head of the National Bloc and a Mokheiber supporter, declared that “in democratic systems, people should vote behind screens,” adding that what was happening “was a black mark on freedom.”
After meeting Sunday evening, opposition politicians said the alleged irregularities were “another Aug. 7,” a reference to the security crackdown on mainly Christian pro-sovereignty activists last year.
“On June 2, Interior Minister Elias Murr violated the law in an unprecedented manner for Lebanese elections,” said a statement signed by former President Amin Gemayel; Metn MPs Nassib Lahoud and Pierre Gemayel; Jbeil MP Fares Soueid; former Jezzine MP Nadim Salem; former Kesrouan MP Camille Ziade; General Nadim Lteif, representing former army chief General Michel Aoun; National Liberal Party president Dory Chamoun; former Communist Party secretary-general George Hawi, activist Samir Franjieh, a member of the Qornet Shehwan Gathering; and Gabriel Murr.
“Minister Murr has openly and repeatedly incited people to break the law,” the statement added, “by calling for ignoring Article 49 of the Election Law, which represents the last protection for voters from pressure.”
The opposition politicians said that prominent legal experts and ministers in the current government ­ including Justice Minister Samir Jisr ­ had objected to Elias Murr’s interpretation of the law. They called on the government to “take suitable measures” against Elias Murr and prosecute him.
They said that Prime Minister Rafik Hariri should “not shrug off his official responsibilities as he did on Aug. 7” and said Hariri should resign if he proved “unable once again to check the behavior of a minister.”
Gabriel Murr, the statement continued, contacted Hariri by telephone after the polls opened and informed him about Elias Murr’s actions.
For its part, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections criticized the Interior Ministry for its performance, zeroing in on the curtain issue.
It said the ministry’s circular was a “serious and flagrant violation” of Article 49.
“Such a circular is an overt instigation to violate the law by a party that is supposed to be the first one responsible for the respect and enforcement of the law and ensuring the honesty and neutrality of the election process,” LADE said, urging the executive branch of government to take “immediate measures to end that violation” and withdraw the circular.
The group, an independent election watchdog, said that Elias Murr had “humiliated” voters by intimating that whoever was using the curtain was being “bribed.” LADE also complained about the following alleged irregularities: Security personnel were present inside polling stations, naturalized Lebanese were pressured to vote a certain way, polling station officials refused to hear complaints by campaign delegates or acted in a biased fashion, and journalists were either prevented from entering polling stations or kicked out arbitrarily.
Mokheiber appeared to suffer from a lack of fixed delegates at a number of polling stations, although he appeared to have a sufficient number of roving representatives. Fixed delegates are instrumental in ensuring a fair count, since only they are allowed to monitor the tabulation.
While Mokheiber and Gabriel Murr’s election posters and pamphlets were in evidence around Metn, the third main candidate in the race appeared to be Michel Murr, and not his daughter Myrna. No photos bearing Myrna Murr’s likeness were in evidence ­ rather her father’s familiar face beamed out from posters stuck on cars, trees and electricity posters, reminiscent of the 2000 elections.
In Bteghrine, the stronghold of the Michel Murr political machine, Gabriel Murr delegates registered irregularities, but the head of the polling station where the alleged irregularities took place refused to sign them and refused to give his name.
“It’s a dictatorship here,” said Carole Farah, Gabriel Murr’s daughter.
Cameras were forbidden entry into the polling station, except when the current and former interior ministers and their wives were voting.
According to Gabriel Murr’s son Jihad, ISF members prevented cameras from filming his father as he cast his ballot.
“We later managed to convince them to allow the cameramen in, and he had to pretend that he was voting for the cameras,” he said.
In Mansourieh, a large number of voters were casting their votes publicly without going behind the curtain, in a sign of support for Myrna Murr and Michel Murr and to defy opposition politicians who stressed the need for voters to abide by Article 49.
Delegates of Gabriel Murr in Mansourieh tried to register their objection to voters who were not using the curtain but some heads of polling stations ignored the complaints.
As for the Free Patriotic Movement, a newcomer to the election process, the Aounist group appeared to be active, with volunteers joining the Gabriel Murr campaign in significant numbers. The National Liberal Party of Dory Chamoun also had volunteers working for Gabriel Murr.
In Jdeideh, busloads of naturalized citizens arrived from the Bekaa, as Myrna Murr campaign workers accompanied them into polling stations and declined to talk to reporters. Inside, however, Nissaf Shaaban, a naturalized citizen from Baalbek, refused to cast her ballot behind the provided screen.
“We are free to vote in front of everyone if we want to, and we are voting for Michel Murr’s daughter because he is very dear to us all,” she said.
Television reports filmed other naturalized voters vowing to vote for “Michel Murr” in the by-election.
But while most voters went behind the screen once instructed to do so by the head of the polling station, many refused to cast their ballots secretly and others only went behind the screen for a split second.
Other polling officials observed by The Daily Star automatically gestured toward the voting curtain when voters approached to cast their ballots.
Despite the tension, things were so quiet in a Bikfaya polling station that some ISF members caught quick naps.
In Bourj Hammoud, the lunch-time lull in voting gave some polling officials the opportunity to tune their television sets ­ in place for use in the vote count ­ to World Cup games to whittle away the time.

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