Election-related scuffle erupts at Lebanon campus

BEIRUT: A scuffle broke out between student supporters of rival political parties Wednesday at Notre Dame University - Louaize, north of Beirut, with each side blaming the other for the election-related violence.

Students affiliated with the Lebanese Forces got into a fistfight with supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement after the latter held up banners that called for a change to the election law, two days before a heated student council vote is scheduled to take place.

“They raised banners, blasted a recorded speech of Aoun from speakers, and provoked a lot of the students,” Fares Trad, LF student representative for private universities in Lebanon, told The Daily Star.

The agitation grew so intense that LF supporters could no longer restrain themselves, prompting a confrontation, he added.

“None of the LF students were injured. It was only a couple of students from the FPM who were punched in the face.”

FPM student representative Antoun Saad rejected blame for the fight, saying that Aoun's supporters raised banners to “express a rejection of the current election law at the university” when they were attacked.

“We call on the administration to review the security tapes so they can see what actually happened,” Saad told The Daily Star.

FPM students are demanding that the current majoritarian electoral system be changed into either a proportional representation system, or a “one man, one vote” system where students can only vote or candidates from their faculty.

The change is meant to secure representation for the FPM whose student candidates usually fail to win majority votes in NDU elections.

Trad said the FPM students are pressing for the elections to be cancelled. Saad said he supported such a move, but could not confirm if FPM students were in fact pushing for a cancellation.

There are only two lists competing for NDU's student council’s 40 seats in Friday's election.

The Lebanese Forces and its March 14 allies won uncontested student elections at NDU in 2012 after FPM students withdrew from the race.