South Lebanon votes in municipal elections, where Hezbollah is running in an alliance with Amal
BY BASSEM MROUE
In this photo, released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, left, casts his vote at a polling station during municipal elections on his village of Aishiyeh, south Lebanon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
BEIRUT — Residents of southern Lebanon voted Saturday in the
country's municipal elections
that will test support for Hezbollah in the predominantly Shiite areas, months after the end of the
destructive Israel-Hezbollah
war.
Hezbollah is running in an alliance with the Amal group of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and both are expected to win mayoral races and the majority of seats in municipal councils. Both groups already won many municipalities uncontested.
South Lebanon is the fourth and last district to vote in the elections since May 4. Among those who voted Saturday were Hezbollah members wounded in the Sept. 17, 2024, explosions of thousands of
pagers
that blew up near-simultaneously in an operation carried out by Israel. More than a dozen were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded.
'The will of life is stronger than death and the will of construction is stronger than destruction,'
President Joseph Aoun
said during a tour of south Lebanon
Saturday. He told reporters in his hometown of Aaichiyeh that he voted for the first time in 40 years.
Saturday's vote came two days after Israel's air force carried out intense airstrikes in different parts of south Lebanon.
Residents of villages and towns on the border with Israel, including the village of
Kfar Kila
that was almost completely destroyed during the war, cast their ballots at polling stations set up in the nearby city of Nabatiyeh. Residents of other border villages cast their ballots in the port city of Tyre.
'Southerners are proving again that they are with the choice of resistance,' Hezbollah legislator Ali Fayad, who represents border villages, said in Nabatiyeh.
Lebanon's cash-strapped government has been scrambling to secure international funds for the war reconstruction, which the World Bank estimates at over $11 billion.
Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after a deadly
Hamas-led incursion
into southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon that escalated into a full-blown war that left more than 4,000 dead in Lebanon and more than 80 soldiers and 47 civilians in Israel. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect in late November.
According to UN resolution 1701, Hezbollah is supposed to be disarmed but so far has refused to do so . 1701 also calls for complete monopoly of arms by the state. Unless Hezbollah disarms there will be no reconstruction in Lebanon since none of the donor states is willing to help Lebanon as long as Hezbollah remains arms.In its negotiations with Iran , the US is insisting that Iran should not be supporting its proxies , including Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Shiite militia in Iraq
AP
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