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
- 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