We’ve been protesting in the streets since before we could legally drink alcohol. At first, it was protesting for big, ideological titles and protests and movements were well organized by the traditional political parties in Lebanon. But that changed, and I’m so happy it did.

2015’s Garbage-Induced Seismic Shockwave

In 2015, an earth-shattering paradigm shift happened and the country’s youth broke up with the political parties in light of their criminally stupid and corrupt handling of the garbage crisis, which we are still drowning and swimming in till this day.

It was further solidified when a few months later, independent, anti-establishment and pro-reform lists ran for the municipal elections all across the country.

The shift happened when demanding in the streets, turned into running with an airtight platform, with gender-balanced lists that are openly non-sectarian and transparently crowdfunded. And most importantly, got shock results that saw all the political parties colluding with all their funding, get less than 60%, while the crowdfunded, independent Beirut Madinati list got more than 40%.

If you want proof of how resounding the impact of those municipal elections was, just look how desperately the political elite in Lebanon are trying to push the elections further. Their soap opera handling of the electoral law, with pathetic reasons like “the weather will be bad, so let’s push the elections a year” is proof of how worried they are. How petrified they are of the ballot boxes.

And who can blame them? They have been rearranging their alliances, with mortal enemies suddenly going on TV and telling us all that they’re allied now and no one can change that (given that most of the people in those parties still bicker, and make it to the news, forcing the godfathers to go and reassert their weird, nonsensical alliance after decades of hatred that was never really resolved). They did nothing in their stolen time, but plunge us further into debt and the country into disrepair.

We Need to Get Better Organized

We have 11 months to prepare. Personally, I think the rotten politicians will try to extend for themselves even further, but let’s assume the situation is bad enough, that no excuse of bad weather or “training” people to vote will last past next May. Plus, let’s use their illegal extension to our advantage, and make sure we organize and prepare our candidates and lists to destroy them next elections and start running the country for its taxpayers, not its tax-evading billionaires.

Our Weaknesses

Ego-Driven Disputes and a Transparent Process to Select our Candidates

Most of the prominent activists and community organizers are good friends of mine, and we have worked shoulder to shoulder as the authorities beat some of us to a pulp, tried to smear us and throw us in jail.

However, one thing many of those activists lack is the legitimacy from average voters. No one voted for these people, so how can they speak on everyone’s behalf? Why are they the ones that decide when we protest, why and for how long? Those are just some of the comments heard, and the reason groups bicker amongst themselves sometimes so publicly.

This isn’t an attack against the activist leaders, but many stumbling blocks in our movement was because of political maneuvering by one group or the other. Therefore, it’s time to create a mechanism where the voters themselves can decide, before we get to the elections, who will run for us and who can really win at the ballot box.

Primary elections could be one way. Hold primary elections in districts we plan to run, so voters can register with us their support, and choose the pool of candidates we will eventually help get into office. If primary elections are too costly and difficult, and there are many other ways to find the people we need in office who have so far stayed out of the limelight.

We need candidates that work on the ground, who are experts in their fields and who have given to Lebanon more than a few protests and sound bites on the evening news. The criteria for who can qualify as a candidate for us, need to be clear and every candidate needs to meet them, no matter what.

No Cannibalizing Each Other

If different independent groups decide they want to run in X district, they shouldn’t run against each other, but together. If group A has better chances in dictrict X, group B should throw their support behind them, and group A will throw their support behind group B in a district where group B has better chances of winning.

The scenario of Charbel Nahhas’ group and other independent groups poaching votes from each other that ultimately only help the establishment, cannot happen in the next elections. We need to coordinate, sit down and decide what is the smartest way of tackling the elections and making sure our boys and girls make it to office, and transform our demands in the streets into concrete action translated into government policy.

One Campaign, Many Groups

We need to go into the elections under one campaign. All the groups, with their different areas of operation, different platforms, different hopes and aspirations on the details of reforming this country, need to form an electoral coalition.

We cannot fall into the trap of coalitions being “Maronite weddings” in that they cannot be broken or changed no matter what. This isn’t the Feudal Age, no one needs to pledge allegiance to anything or anyone except their country. These groups might not agree on absolutely everything, but that doesn’t mean they can’t run together because the broad points are the same.

Non-sectarianism, independence from foreign powers (Arab or otherwise), reform and fighting corruption, environmentally friendly policies, focusing on infrastructure and development nationwide (not just Beirut and its immediate surroundings), fair elections, judicial reform, electoral reform, gender equality and a respect for basic human and civil rights.

Does one group prefer sorting garbage from the source, while the other wants to make sorting plants? So fucking what? Get to power, then decide with a vote and the resources and information at the government’s disposal which option is best, most cost-effective and environmentally sound.

This isn’t falling into the trap of “steam rollers” (ma7edel) where everyone just melts into an amorphous blob of ambiguous political opinions like our traditional parties’ electoral alliances (7ilf el roube3e anyone?). It’s being smart, and agreeing on the broad titles, while maintaining each group’s independence and unique agenda. After all, this is what voters will support, and just being “anti” something isn’t enough, we need to show our own plans and what we want to do, not just what we all are against or hate. Kinda like Beirut Madinati did.

The Beirut Madinati Experiment

Beirut Madinati was a very educational experience for everyone involved. The mechanism of selecting candidates, how to fundraise, how to campaign, how to create a detailed, optimistic yet pragmatic platform, and most importantly, how to mobilize people into a loose coalition that had a massive impact.

We should focus on our strongpoints in that campaign, and work on the ones we found needed improvement. The BM model was the most successful attempt we’ve had at going into government, and under a fairer law, we’d have more than third of the seats, given we won one of the 3 electoral districts of Beirut (in the parliamentary elections district of the 1960 law) with a 15 point lead and lost to slim margins in the other 2.

Municipal elections are very different from parliamentary ones though, and we need to get that and make sure the difference is clear. Municipal elections are far more developmental in their concerns, with political leanings not as big of a deciding factor in how people vote, like in parliamentary ones.

Parliamentary elections happen all across the country, at the same time. They also decide the fate of the entire country, not just your hometown or village. They’re a far, far larger effort in terms of scope, funds, volunteers and issues. And I think we can be ready for that in the 11 extra months the current parliament has stolen from us.

It’s Time

Meetings have been ongoing for months, but none have delivered the results we are all hoping for. Yet. The work should come out from the shadows and into the public, including the maximum number of groups and individuals who can run and vote.

Organizing election campaigns should get underway, and figuring out the campaign title and slogan that will unite all of them in a coalition that can get us results, and into parliament, and best of all, the current failures out of it (or some of them at the very least).

There are many names I’d like to see run for elected office, and some of them have already shown intent to run, with some having their teams and platforms already in order and ready to launch.

Joumana Haddad and Ziad Baroud are the potential candidates and candidates I am most excited about. Both are inspirations for so many of us, and I personally love them both and respect the work they‘ve put in trying to make Lebanon the way we want it to be, not the way the current establishment has made it the past few decades.

I’d love to see names from Beirut Madinati, like Yorgui Teyrouz, Ibrahim Mneimneh, Mona Hallak and Serge Yazigi run too.

It will be interesting to see what prominent names and figures from the 7irak that formed in 2015, might run as well. Assaad Thebian, Wadih El Asmar, Marwan Maalouf, Imad Bazzi and many others.

Anyway, it’s time to start work guys. From now till the elections, I will do my best to cover what’s happening, help highlight candidates I support and how we hope to win the seats we deserve. I’ll also try to cover candidates that do not deserve to be re-elected for the dismal performance they have shown us the past years with no elections…

Get ready folks.