Election fever apparently led to reports that Metn MP Ghassan Ashqar had died, prompting the lawmaker to make an appearance at Nijmeh Square on Wednesday to dispel the rumors.
Ashqar denied that members of his Syrian Social Nationalist Party had voted for Gabriel Murr in Sunday’s by-election, as the group was allied with Metn MP Michel Murr and candidate Myrna Murr.
“No, no, that’s a rumor, just like the rumor that I was dead,” Ashqar told reporters. “But here I am, after having been to ‘the other side’ ­ and I can tell you what I saw there: Hell is certainly a lot better than here, with the country in chaos.”
The legislator complained that the victorious side in Sunday’s by-election was “responsible for the corruption that Lebanon experienced for two decades, during the civil war,” a likely reference to former President Amin Gemayel and former army commander General Michel Aoun.
“Now these people are supposed to represent our future, and the future of our political life,” he quipped.
He added that “sectarian” rhetoric was on the rise in the wake of the elections and said local television stations were out of control, while the state’s position was full of “contradictions.”
Ashqar, who recently had open-heart surgery, said rumors of his death had been circulating since Saturday.

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