Background

With a few notable exceptions, getting elected to Parliament in Lebanon is, and always has been, an expensive business. The half dozen or so families who between them provided most of the successful candidates in the early years of independence were not only well established and powerful. They were also immensely wealthy. However, their influence declined, especially over the period of the 75-90 war and new faces and new elites emerged as the financial balance of power shifted.

Yet the methods adopted to win – or buy votes – have remained remarkably similar. The dollar figures have risen, of course, to take account of inflation, more sophisticated and more expensive means of communication, and most significantly because of the Syrians’ locally-imposed ‘tax’ to be allowed to stand for election at all.

Composition of electoral lists

Irrespective of the size of any list, which is itself determined by the drawing of the constituency electoral boundaries, the primary elements are twofold. The vote-getter is determined by reason of traditional, local, confessional and political following, such as the leader of the mainly Druze Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, and the principal financier or financiers. Former Prime Minister, the late Rafic Hariri, was exceptional in that he embodied both functions. In his case, the base of voter support, Sunni or otherwise, was built up by the judicious use of his wealth over decades. Hariri had no natural grassroots support built up by his family over generations.

The two other ingredients to a list are those who bring some money, a degree of popular following and marketability potential, or any combination of these, plus the candidates on any list imposed by the Lebanese-based representatives of the Syrian government.

List financing

Since the size of lists varies just as the number of potential voters in a constituency can range from around 60,000 to as many as 300,000-400,000, there is no headline figure attributable to the cost of running a list. One yardstick used is to have a visible (i.e. for wholly legal use) $100 available for every vote that is needed to win the election. Experienced campaign insiders add, with a wry smile, that victory is virtually guaranteed with the presence of another $200 per voter for spending in a variety of “suitable’ ways (see below).

The total bill for a large list can easily run to several million dollars. The expenses include handing over up to $1 million to Syrian political intelligence officials for authorizing, in practice though not officially, the list’s participation.

The Syrian list-existence tax has also prompted the need for raising the entry fee to be able to get onto a particular list. Local market forces sometimes determine that the price of joining an electoral ticket can be heavily influenced the buyer’s ability to pay. Thus the price for a rich newcomer with little previous history of helping the alliance he is trying to join may reach the million-dollar mark. Elsewhere, the figure might be much more ‘reasonable’ although it is still frequently prohibitive for all but the wealthy.

In the 2000 parliamentary elections, one potential candidate in his early 30s is said to have been asked for $100,000 to join up with Omar Karami in Tripoli, the same figure being sought in Beirut from a lawyer who sought entry into an electoral list favored by the President, General Emile Lahoud.

Though neither was eventually elected, their routes to failure took different paths. The northern potential candidate bowed out entering the race alongside Karami because he didn’t have the money. The lawyer secured an understanding that arrangements could be made to make such a contribution, possibly in stages, provided that he were elected. Even with the implicit backing of Baabda Palace, he attracted only a fraction of the 28,000 votes needed to secure a seat in the 128-seat exclusive Nijmeh Square Club.

What the law says

1. Campaign contributions

Although proposals have been made to limit campaign spending – the latest is to put a $100,000 ceiling on the permissible amount – there is, and never has been, a maximum figure set by law. In any case there is no mechanism for checking on candidates’ spending. The notion of filing returns on campaign expenses as required by democracies in Western Europe, for example, is unknown.

There is also no regulation on campaign contributions. In practice fund-raising is a rarity. The midterm election of Ghassan Moukhaiber in 2002 was an exception. His campaign in the Metn, which cost a modest $45,000, was largely financed through small contributions made by friends and supporters.

The bulk of the money spent comes from a relatively small number of mega-wealthy people. Of those, some may seek to use the status of MP as a stepping-stone toward a seat in the Cabinet where they would have the opportunity to recoup their outlay from under-the-table commissions on government contracts. In other cases, campaign expenses are seen simply as the cost for attaining the status conferred by becoming a Deputy. Satisfying the ego has its price.

• Media spending

Direct advertisements of the kind that swallows up hundreds of millions of dollars in United States elections are prohibited by law. Yet the existence of privately owned TV stations, newspapers and magazines, owned or heavily influenced by leading political figures, helps to circumvent this rule. NBN television, nicknamed Nabih Berri News, is seen as an asset to the Speaker of Parliament’s candidates every bit as valuable as Mostaqbal TV and newspaper were to Hariri. State-owned television and radio is supposed to be neutral and allow equal and fair coverage to all candidates. In 2000, it campaigned heavily and virulently against the Hariri camp.

If political adverts were allowed in TV they would quickly eat up millions of dollars. The average rate card cost of a 30 second spot at prime time (including the associated freebies of very early morning repeats etc) is around $3,000, to which has to be added production expenses of anything from $5,000 to $50,000+.

While the cost of straightforward television advertising is not a current issue, coverage by the audiovisual media is not always determined by balanced and fair editorial decisions. The growing habit of being able to buy an appearance on TV, either through money or influence, adds a dimension to campaign costs that is impossible to measure.

In fairness, the idea of ‘placing’ favorable articles in the print media and arranging friendly interviews on television is not solely a Lebanese disease, nor is it confined to election time. Faced with a world of low-salaried journalists, one enterprising public relations company in Beirut drew up a price list for getting major articles in papers. Most prized and therefore most expensive was An Nahar at $500, with As Safir following at $300 and The Daily Star coming in at $200.

• Bribery

Given the overtly blatant and wholesale bribery that besets elections, it almost seems fatuous to point out that it is a felony. Details of common practices that constitute a reasonable person’s definition of bribery are given below.

• Misuse of public funds

It is also a felony to misuse public money and assets in pursuit of private gain. In a country where the police are as guilty as anyone of committing the relatively minor offense of driving down one-way streets in the wrong direction, sanctions against the misuse of public funds have rarely been a threat.

The real contributions to campaigns in this area come not from stealing the state’s money directly and handing it out but in other, scarcely less blatant, ways. Public works projects, especially small local ones, increase substantially just before an election; favors, such as having a prosecution dropped, also go up; and underemployed employees in various ministries suddenly find themselves working flat out on campaign organization at the behest of their master’s voice.

Another way in which votes are assured by state institutions was the practice by the Ministry of the Interior in sending its agents to tell 11,000 recently naturalized citizens living in the Metn that their citizenship would be taken away if they failed to vote in the way they were told. To make sure, most were collected in cars, driven to polling stations and accompanied into the booths to make sure they did as they were told. The value of this exercise was not only that it delivered the votes but also that carrying it out didn’t bite into the campaign treasure chest.

Yet one more tactic in the Ministry of Interior’s highly efficient vote-getting repertoire has been to dispatch agents to businesses to remind the owners of the value of permits they need to operate. Vote for our men and you keep the permit. If not…

Where it goes

a. Posters

The printing industry receives a considerable boost at election time, not only from candidates and entire lists but also from some publicity-seekers who spend a few hundred dollars having posters of their faces stuck up alongside those of genuine candidates. Most of the cost of the poster blitz on Beirut of candidates on the Hariri lists in 2000 was borne internally and directly by the campaign itself. According to election insiders, only around $150,000 was spent outside at Saatchi & Saatchi on design work and printing.

The advantage of using direct labor to put up the posters, rather than outside contractors, is that it encourages those paid to do the work also to vote for the candidates whose posters they are sticking up. The costs are further inflated by hiring other labor to remove posters of rivals and replacing a campaign’s own posters that have suffered the same fate.

Extensive use of billboards is in vogue and Metn has the highest density in the country. Several hundred of them are controlled by a close relative of President Lahoud, a factor that has clearly influenced who may use them and how much is paid.

b. Other campaign literature

Leaflets and flyers are printed mainly to be distributed through the local election offices opened throughout a constituency although one aspect of promotional literature that always figures in European elections – a detailed manifesto of the political program promised – is missing. This document is superfluous because none of the candidates is inclined to reveal what they will do if returned to power.

The amount of the printing bills belongs firmly in that widespread category of “the higher the better” and usually they are settled on delivery of the order since losing candidates might be less inclined to pay.

Caps, t-shirts, badges, car bumper stickers also boost local industry – and potential electoral support.

c. Local offices

The renting of local campaign offices serves not only to generate extra publicity for the candidates but also provides an opportunity to encourage more support by carefully picking and overpaying for temporary premises from owners who can deliver votes.

Renting chairs, tables, telephones and, in some cases, computer equipment is a relatively small proportion of the expense. Even bigger than the rent is the bill for paying supporters to spend their days making it appear there is a hive of activity. In practice, the biggest use of local offices is on polling day when they become useful as administrative centers for making sure that known supporters have actually voted.

They also function as checks on whether supporters are included on the electoral lists and whether they have the correct documentation to be able to vote.

• Meals

A part of the reward for spending entire days in local offices – and often for other campaign workers too – is to have meals provided. The choice of culinary fare is influenced more by currying favor with the suppliers than by the taste buds of the campaign workers. Even at a level of only a few dollars a day, when multiplied by the number of workers and the weeks of campaigning the total bill for food for a well-funded list runs into several thousand dollars.

• Transport

Supplementing the allowances for gas given to supporters who use their own vehicles for campaign work is a new practice of hiring the vehicles of entire taxi companies, whether they are used or not. Monopolizing the available transport has the added advantage of depriving rivals off those facilities.

• Keys

So called because they open the door to bringing in votes, the role of local ‘key’ people is to distribute the largesse on offer to families well-known to them. The lump sums of cash, goods or allowances for services are allocated according to the number of voters they can persuade.

The ballpark figure of $100 per voter can rise to as much as three times that amount in tight races. Just as those Syrian construction workers who stayed in Lebanon after the murderous bombing of February 14 found themselves in a sellers’ market where they were able to negotiate their daily rates upwards, so voters, as for example in Achrafieh in 2000, were able to bump up the price of their support.

Other inducements included the mass distribution of fridges and cookers in Beirut in the 2000 elections and the offer of paying school fees and medical expenses, as well as the provision of musical instruments for a band.

Some electoral lists, especially in the Metn, still contain the names of significant numbers of dead people. Though ‘bribing the dead’ is somewhat cheaper than the amount needed for the living the use of their votes depends upon whether old-style identity cards will be considered valid for voting.

Where do the candidates come from

According to a study of all the elections up to 1972, the vast majority of the 359 total number of Deputies up to that point had inherited their seats from family members. Since the end of the war the make-up has changed. Despite the apparent majority allegiance to Syria, informed sources say that without the local presence of Syrian intelligence, the outgoing Parliament splits into three roughly equal parts – the opposition, pro-Syrians, and those who did support Syria but who will change once the Damascus security network is known to have disappeared.

With money such a deciding factor in standing to become a Deputy, no wholesale changes are seen for this year. However, more supporters of former Prime Minister Michel Aoun are likely to become candidates in Baabda and Aley, Batroun and Jbeil will see faces from the ranks of Lebanese Forces.

Hizbullah

Almost uniquely among candidates and parties the Party of God does not directly bribe its voters. Critics say that the permanent provision of social services, health and education facilities, road and house repair amount to the same thing.

As the political organization also noted for having the tightest control of its supports, the party sees its discipline paying off.  Hizbullah supporters are noted for following their instructions exactly. If told to vote for an entire list, that is precisely what happens. Amal partisans are said to act more independently.

Conclusion

The absence of Syrian influence and the requirement to pay commission to its intelligence services could cut the cost of fielding a list by anything up to 50 percent, thus either saving money or freeing more funds for other purposes. It would also mean that those current deputies who gained their seats after being imposed on a likely-to-be successful list will have to find another way – and other funds – to stay in Nijmeh Square.

The absence of laws regulating expenditure and, more particularly, the absence of enforcement of the laws on bribery and misuse of power will ensure the absence of real change.

Although abuses of the process in the United States and the European Union are frequently – and sometimes justifiably – alleged, they are less blatant than those seen locally. The 2005 parliamentary elections in Lebanon are likely to produce another example of ‘local democracy’ and that’s without even considering the artificial equal allocation of seats to two confessional groups.

Peter Grimsditch is a former editor of The Daily Star and Middle East correspondent for the London Daily Express

Providing safe mooring for the growing number of floating toys is almost a by-product of Lebanese marinas. More important, even for the showpiece Beirut marina, is the added value they give to the surrounding area. In Dbayeh, the Joseph Khoury Marina cost $70 million to build and provides a much smaller return on the investment than stashing the money in a bank, even at today’s low interest rates. The 700 berths are less than one third occupied. Downtown, the numbers look better – Beirut marina is 60 percent taken up – but the project is seen less as a commercial venture in its own right than as a mega magnet for the rich and the not-so-rich to spend their money in the immediate surrounding areas.

Just as the establishment of the Jbeil campus of the Lebanese American University had the subsidiary purpose of seeking to increase the attractiveness and value of the adjacent hilltop land, so in their own slightly different ways marina operators are trying to follow the same principle.

The Khoury marina is the sexy starlet to attract interest and massive investment in the construction of what virtually amounts to a mini city, immediately to the east and south of the site. Plans include the almost inevitable five-star hotel, three major shopping malls, restaurants and a mass of apartment and bungalow complexes that can be marketed as “overlooking the marina”.

If strolling along the seafront and eating in the waterside restaurants of Cannes or Nice brings with it the bonus of viewing with envy the sleek millions of dollars worth of floating luxury, so Lebanon has adopted the principle with enthusiasm.

Added value

Even the smaller marinas are seen as being commercially more important for enticing customers to the adjoining beach resorts than for generating significant income of their own. If all 35 berths are occupied for the season, the slots at the marina at the Riviera Hotel on the Corniche bring in gross revenue of $75,000 a year. Since the entire coastline is owned by the state, nearly half of this goes straight to the government for leasing the requisites amount of seafront. When another $20,000-$25,000 is deducted for staff and maintenance costs, the bottom line comes in only marginally above break even.

Yet it is viewed as contributing as much to filling the restaurants, bars, pool and sunbathing area as that other prized Riviera asset, its reputation for having more examples of bikini-clad beauty per square meter than most other places in the country.

First down the slipway

Among the first people to appreciate the sex appeal of boats were the operators of Holiday Beach nearly 20 years ago. As part of its progression and conversion from a hotel to a chalet and beach resort complex, the owners, Dog River Holiday and Tourist Center, decided to plow back part of the proceeds from selling chalets and apartments to constructing the marina. It cost LL15 million but that was in the days when the value of all those zeros added up to around $5 million. Some 75% of its capacity of 150 boats is taken up with mainly Lebanese-owned and domestically registered craft. Even so, it attracts some foreign vessels and last month (for lack of space) diverted to Aquamarina a few miles higher up the coast at Tabarja a dozen visiting sailboats that had crossed to the Eastern Mediterranean from Canada, the US, England and Belgium.

Part of the deal for boat owners is the option for an extra $350 a year of five passes into the resort. Although Holiday Beach marina charges are much lower than those further south, this sum is still a relatively insignificant item on the total bill. A ten-meter boat costs around $2,500 a year, just over half what it would cost in Joseph Khoury, Beirut or the Riviera. The rule of thumb is that moorings north of the Nahr El Kalb tunnel are much cheaper than those nearer to the capital.

Follow my leader

A decade later the Riviera followed suit and spent the same amount as Holiday Beach. Cost increases over the years ensured that the Riviera received only 25 percent as much marina for their $5 million. Its more easily accessible location – for Beirutis anyway – allows it to charge $400 a meter, almost the same rates as the much larger Beirut and Joseph Khoury marinas.

In common with most other operators, the Riviera offers free daytime mooring for visitors. In any case, whatever few dollars might be charged pale into insignificance compared with the potential spending power of a boatload of people intent on eating, drinking and enjoying themselves in the resort.

The marina, like the hotel, is owned by developer George Zakhem and his brothers and Nizar Alouf. Although there is potential for some expansion, there are no plans to do so. A bigger space may slightly increase the number of boats but the investment wouldn’t add anything extra to the current glamour quotient.

Aquamarina, another product of the post-war era, cheerfully admits that it doesn’t make a penny out of parking boats. The two-phase chalet and cabina complex was a product of wartime and was built as shells rained down in 1978 and 1984. Construction of the marina brought its own problems too, especially as the choice of following the line of a natural sheltered site incorporated sea depths of up to 15 meters, several times the figure actually needed. Dealing with such deep water increased the costs of developing the adjacent jetties. And in the realm of ‘it’s a small world’ whatever the depth, Aquamarina was built by Joseph Khoury, the contractor who owns the marina that bears his name in Dbayeh.

In at the launch

Seeing the established examples and success as a marketing tool for their companion resorts, the Mővenpick Hotel and Resort in Raouche had the complex designed to include a marina from the outset. When it opened in July 2002, it did, however, reintroduce a different concept of how it gets an income from the moorings. They are sold on 99-year leases rather than being made subject to yearly rental charges. The smallest, 2.5 meters wide by nine meters costs $32,000. The largest is five meters by 20 meters with a price tag of $105,000. In addition, maintenance charges starting at $800 a year for smaller boats cover electricity and water charges, as well as security and assistance from the marina staff in mooring. Before that, Aquamarina had been marketing “berths for life” and succeeded in ensuring that around 60 percent of the marina occupants also have either a chalet or a cabina in the complex.

Up to last month, 85 of Movenpick’s 140 berths have been sold, with the vast majority being bought by clients who similarly have also taken a chalet or a cabina in the resort. Ownership of berths adds to the place’s exclusivity but it also puts restrictions on allowing external boats to visit the marina. They are allowed in only by invitation of an existing owner and do not gain access to the resorts facilities. At Aquamarina, visitors are welcome to moor during the daytime and gain access to dining facilities but like Movenpick the pool and the other facilities are off limits.

Unusually the marina entrance faces south, which makes a part of the anchorage more vulnerable to the ravages of winter weather from the prevailing southwesterly winds. It does, however, have the advantage of keeping the approaching boats well away from the beach area on the opposite side of the complex. Even so, the operators say the innermost sheltered areas are suitable for boats to be left there in the winter.

Although most marinas of all sizes advertise themselves as all-year-round, the unpredictability of winter storms, especially in the past two years, has reduced the only winter moorages confidently deemed safe to Beirut Marina, where $150 million was spent on sea defenses, and Joseph Khoury at Dbayeh.

License to spend money

Winter or summer, the bottom line for the owners is that buying a boat is the same as acquiring a license to spend money. Calculating the first expense – the cost of a berth – does not depend solely on the boat’s length. There has been a military debate for years about the respective merits of having short, fat warships or long thin ones, with each having staunch defenders. In leisure boating that doesn’t apply. Although it doesn’t take a technical expert to figure out that as boat get longer they also get wider, marinas have their own methods of calculating how much space in total a boat occupies. At Aquamarina, it’s the beam, or width of a vessel, that determines the cost of moorage, not the length.

At the downtown marina, every boat over 10 meters long is charged on the number of square meters the vessel occupies. This is calculated by multiplying the length by the width at its widest point. Thus everything afloat is assumed to be a rectangle.

Joseph Khoury operates a slightly different system. Its price range for mooring runs from $350 per meter of length for small boats all the way up to $750 for the super-yachts. In round terms that translates into around $4,000 (including VAT) per annum for a ten meter boat and just under $50,000 for a 65-meter ocean going vessel.

Getting big and bigger

It is those big, big boats that are increasingly concentrating the mind at both Beirut and Joseph Khoury, the only two marinas in the country capable of handling them. Beirut has completely recast its internal mooring layout to cater for these big boats and the guys at Dbayeh, while already capable of receiving vessels up to 90 meters, also have contingency plans for redesigning their interior. Removal of some of the wooden pontoons currently dedicated for smaller craft would increase the capacity for vessels of 25m-30m. Beirut’s capacity was more than halved as far as the number of vessels was concerned, although the surface area covered by boat remained the same.

Still, many mariners take convincing. At Beirut, the Greek captain of a Saudi-owned 65-meter boat was lying outside the marina entrance, determined not to enter because he said there was not enough room. No amount of persuasion from marina officials could convince him. Eventually the owner ordered him to dock the boat despite his reservations. It has since returned more than a dozen times and on one remarkable occasion Beirut hosted four boats of this size at the same time.

The millions flow in

The principle of allying a land home to a mooring spot is operated at Beirut, Holiday Beach and Movenpick and, when the land is developed, will also underpin the Joseph Khoury strategy. Downtown many of the berths have been leased by Gulf Arabs who are awaiting delivery of a luxury apartment in one of the blocks currently under construction facing the marina. Some of them do not even have boats yet but want to make sure they have somewhere to put it.

Joseph Khoury denies access to the public because it wants to maintain the exclusivity of the place for the day when it, too, will be able to offer luxury homes overlooking a guaranteed berth. The management in Dbayeh sees the market for marina use expanding by around 70 percent in the next five years but also reckon that there is neither need nor room for further expansion to accommodate the increased numbers. Current slack will absorb foreseeable demand.

The same view comes from Beirut. A second marina, around half the size of the current 65,000 square meters, is scheduled to be built irrespective of demand. It is part of the overall Master Plan. However, the current operators foresee a demand anyway.

Both marina operators base this optimism on the premise of stability in both Lebanon and the region, as well as the continued switch in spending of Arab wealth from the West. The aftermath of Arab unpopularity in the West following the attacks of September 11, 2001, continues to bring their money back to the region.

Conclusion

The big money that comes along with the big boats is well on course for Lebanon – provided, as ever, there are no major political or security problems. The current slack represented by Joseph Khoury’s 30 percent occupancy and Solidere’s impending new marina will meet foreseeable demand at the high end. Lesser mortals with lesser boats are also well catered for on the northern half of the coast. The South has no marinas and, with ever-possible interference in all forms of shipping by the Israeli Navy, is unlikely to have any time soon. The South also, because of occupation among other things, is still underdeveloped. The emergence of beach resorts in the past few years may well be followed by adjoining hotels and other facilities, such as ‘glamour’ small marinas along the lines of the one that contributes to the success of the Riviera in Beirut. But like every other idea for enhancing the country’s resources and prosperity, it depends on the ‘situation’ being as calm as the sea.

Formality footnote

There may be a good reason why some sizeable floating gin palaces around these shores carry exotic ports of registration far away from Lebanon. If, as Shakespeare maintained, the evil that men do lives after them, the Lebanese have retained a wartime reputation for using boats to smuggle weapons, drugs and people. According to experts in Beirut, this almost guarantees extra checks and time-consuming searches in foreign ports.

However, entering Lebanon with a boat registered abroad is not without its problems. Having completed the formalities to enter, say, Beirut, a vessel must undergo the whole process of leaving the country and re-entering, even if its passengers wants only to go off for lunch in Batroun.