Cap screwed on the head and light denim jacket, Lina Hamdan, independent Shiite candidate for the legislative elections in Beirut, takes part in a rally against a law under study in Parliament for the control of capital.
"We must continue to defend the rights of citizens. The country is bankrupt and there is no fair distribution of losses," she explains, before blending into the crowd.
Although she is in the middle of the electoral campaign – the legislative elections being scheduled for May 15 – Lina Hamdan takes the time to participate in the anti-power protests, she who was particularly active during the popular uprising of October 2019. Despite her Belonging to the Shiite community, Lina Hamdan has always been opposed to Hezbollah.
She even collaborated, as a communications officer, in the governments put in place by Sunni Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, assassinated in 2005, then by his son, Saad Hariri, close to Riyadh.
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She is now seeking one of the two Shiite seats in the capital, occupied since 2018 by members of Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal movement.
Since she formalized her candidacy, the appointments have been linked for this woman overflowing with energy who is trying to find a place for herself against the electoral steamroller of the Hezbollah/Amal tandem.
When the demonstration is over, Lina Hamdan welcomes us to her Beirut apartment, where she hopes to find some respite.
But very quickly, his phone rings: a notable from one of the capital's popular Shiite neighborhoods asks him for an appointment to discuss his program.
“Several families who traditionally voted for the Shiite tandem are tired of the situation and are trying to support new candidates. People no longer have money or work. Many supporters of the Shiite duopoly are now reduced to poverty. But they are afraid to vote for change. So you have to meet them to convince them", explains Lina Hamdan.
After the voters of the capital, the next stage of his campaign will be aimed at the diaspora.
"
We have scheduled several online meetings with Lebanese residing abroad.
We are counting on them a lot to make things happen," she said.
"Stand out from Hezbollah"
Lina Hamdan is well aware that it will be difficult to enter parliament, Shiite representation having been monopolized for decades by Amal and Hezbollah, but she wants to believe in change.
Because for three years, crises have followed one another in Lebanon and popular discontent is gaining ground.
From the October 2019 protests against the political class, to the explosions at the port of Beirut the following summer, to the worst economic crisis in the country's history, Hezbollah – like all the parties in power – is under the fire of criticism.
Coming from a family of Shiite intellectuals, Lina Hamdan wants to show that the Lebanese Shiite community "can stand out from the image conveyed by Hezbollah".
"My battle is to recover the Shiite representation. To reduce this community to Hezbollah is to undermine the Shiites who are not close to this party. I am talking above all about belonging to Iran, which is everything completely foreign to our traditions”, launches the candidate.
"The Shiites belong to the Lebanese fabric, they resemble all the other components of the country. The Shiite community is not a ghetto", she underlines.
Lina Hamdan had already run for election in 2018, without success.
"At the time, when we talked about restoring the sovereignty of the country, we could see that people were not ready to hear this kind of speech. Today, things have changed. There are many opponents within the Shia community," she said.
If the candidate has some hopes in Beirut, confronting Hezbollah elsewhere than in the capital proves to be almost mission impossible.
Many Shiite opponents of the pro-Iranian party have recently withdrawn their candidacies in the Bekaa region, while independent candidates in the south of the country, Hezbollah's undisputed stronghold, have drawn the wrath of the "Party of God".
"In the south, the protest is trying to make its way without opposing Hezbollah head-on," says Lina Hamdan.
The Beirut climate therefore seems the most favorable to an electoral breakthrough for Shiite opponents, allowing the candidate to denounce "attacks on the country's sovereignty".
"The Lebanese are isolated because of Hezbollah's weapons and the importation of a civilization that does not look like us," she says, referring to Hezbollah's proximity to Iran.
"All this is putting us in conflict with the international community as well as with Arab countries while we are a founding member of the Arab League," she recalls.
Despite the challenges, Lina Hamdan believes that change, no matter how small, is possible to implement through elections.
"Of course, it will be a small change, but it will be worth it. It is only when we have new representatives in the institutions that we will recover the confidence of the international community. No one wants to work with the current government anymore. “, she assures.
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