Dissenting voices are heard in Hezbollah's backyard

Beirut: Hezbollah and Amal are used to getting their way in their South Lebanon stronghold, so they never bothered to do any campaigning.

Their candidates seldom give away brochures or kiss babies. Some in the south cannot even recall the names of their representatives in parliament.

Though it was enough for voters like Hassan Al Shami, a 35-year-old teacher who lives and works in Beirut, but who votes in the southern district of Nabatiyah in order to cast his ballot for Al Hizb, as Hezbollah is commonly known in the south.

"Actually, many people didn't even care who the candidate was. They voted for Hezbollah," he said. "There was nobody else to choose anyway."

Since 1992, the first legislative election after the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, the two dominant Shiite parties Hezbollah and Amal, the latter to a lesser extent, have had a political monopoly in the south of Lebanon. Amal is a moderate Shiite movement led by Speaker Nabih Berri.

However, few voices of dissent are heard today in Hezbollah's backyard, although most agree it will take time for those voices to pose a serious challenge to the two parties.

One of those attempting to take on Hezbollah is the Lebanese Option Movement, a small group founded two years ago by Ahmad Al Asa'ad, the son of a prominent feudal southern family. Both his father and grandfather served as parliament speaker. "My goal is to present our people in the south with a third option," he said in a recent TV interview.

Hezbollah's mobilisation of public opinion in the South against the Israeli threat and its domestic rivals has made it difficult for "a third option" to garner credible support.

Hezbollah supporters and critics alike say the party prefers those who think on the same lines.

"I will vote for Hezbollah anyway. I have been doing it all along, but I'd like to see other contenders," Essam, an engineer from the southern Bint Jbail district, says.

Hezbollah and Amal are "as popular and strong as ever" in the south, Hezbollah MP Hassan Hobballah told Gulf News.

"Our strength comes from the fact that we were the only ones to stand up and fight the Israeli occupation. We stepped in when the state chose to look the other way," he explained.

After the occupation, he added, Hezbollah and Amal "also embarked on a massive infrastructure building project because the state continued to ignore this underdeveloped region.

The south is considered one of the least developed areas in Lebanon, with a rate of unemployment higher than other regions.

Hezbollah accuses the state of ignoring the area. Subsequent governments accused Hezbollah of denying them access to the south because many areas in that region are deemed sensitive to the group's military operations against Israel during and after the Israeli occupation.

Hezbollah's popularity however, peaked among the southerners, and across Lebanon and the Arab world, after it rebuffed the Israeli offensive in the summer of 2006.

Hobballah says it is "a natural thing that Hezbollah and Amal enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority" of the southerners.

"But I would not call this a monopoly. It is the belief of the people in the south that Hezbollah is the only party that has defended and continues to defend them against the continuous Israeli aggression," Hobballah said.

He said it was "also natural to find a minority, perhaps two or three per cent of the population who don't support the resistance," as Hezbollah is commonly referred to among the Shiites.

Al Asa'ad is trying to seize that minority to build a base of support in his native south, although it is evident that he doesn't stand a chance in this election despite a modern looking media campaign, funded by his allies in the pro-Western, anti-Hezbollah March 14 coalition.

Another voice challenging the two main powers in the south comes from an old friend, the Communist Party (CP), which enjoys some support among the old and educated in the south.

The party is credited for launching the National Resistance Movement against the Israeli invasion of 1978, years before Hezbollah was born.

"Our contribution to the liberation and protection of the south cannot be denied," Sa'ad Allah Mazraani, an official of the CP who is running against Hezbollah and Amal in the Marjioun district, says. "We are contesting the election to defend our role as a major power in the south, and to give the people another option; a secular one," he told Gulf News. He accused Hezbollah and Amal of trying to "exert absolute control" over political expression in the south.

Few expect Al Asa'ad and the Communists to give Hezbollah and Amal a run for their money in tomorrow's elections. The two Shiite parties and their allies, are expected to win all the 23 seats in the south.