Qifa Nabki
Archive for
Al-Akhbar and Syria
I’m in Beirut for a couple of weeks, and as usual, the blogging takes a back seat to seeing family, catching up with friends, and fulfilling my craving for hindbeh bzeit, shish barak, and chicken livers in pomegranate syrup. However… I have been working on a piece about Amal Saad-Ghorayeb’s recent articles on “Third Way” intellectuals … Continue reading
PR to the People
Someone remarked recently on this blog that proportional representation (PR) is notoriously difficult to explain, particularly in a country like Lebanon that already has a kind of proportional quota system in place. The Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform (CCER) has produced a great animated video that breaks down the proposed system and makes it pretty … Continue reading
Saleh El Machnouk Responds to Qifa Nabki
The political commentator and activist Saleh El Machnouk, whom I discussed in a recent post about Saad Hariri’s declining relevance among Lebanese Sunnis, sent me a response over email a couple days ago which I publish below with his permission. As you’ll see, it reinforces the point I made earlier about the possibilities for public … Continue reading
Clientelism, Vote Buying, and Ballot Reform in Lebanon
We’re a year away from the next Lebanese parliamentary elections, and there has been no final agreement on the proposed reforms for the next electoral law. Proportional representation seems to be dead in the water. Expatriate voting in overseas embassies may also be a pipe dream at this late stage, and the same goes for … Continue reading
Alley Politics: Saad al-Hariri vs. Za’im al-Zaroubeh
Lina Khatib has an article in the Guardian today about the response of Lebanon’s Sunnis to the bloodshed in Syria, the violence in Tripoli, etc. It’s worth reading along with Mustapha Hamoui’s report for the Heinrich Böll Stiftung and his previous writings on the topic at his blog (here and here). Lina remarked on an interesting difference … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…