Saad Hariri’s Beirut supporters boycott election with pool party

Rabih El Omari told local newspaper L’Orient Today that “because we feel it is the same result whether we vote or not”.

He said it was clear who was running the country in an apparent reference to Hezbollah and its allies and they wanted to discredit the process by ensuring “a low turnout within the Sunni sect”.

“The pool is to show that it is not an election day for us,” he told the paper.

Some said the boycott may help Hezbollah’s Sunni allies to win more seats, but those supporters of the Future Movement on the streets of Beirut on Sunday were undeterred.

And they are not alone in turning away from the democratic process.

Nationwide turnout in the election was low, with only about 32 per cent of registered voters casting their ballots by 5pm, according to the Interior Ministry. The 2018 turnout was 48 per cent.