Supporters of MP Walid Jumblat’s Progressive Socialist Party and others from the Tawheed Party of former minister Wiam Wahhab have clashed as a result of electoral tension among Lebanon’s Druze community.
No such skirmishes - resulting from political disputes among the leaders of the Druze sect - had been recorded in the past few years.
But the situation changed this week as quarrels among Druze party leaders moved to the streets of Druze-majority villages in the electoral district of Shouf in Mount Lebanon.
Reports said that clashes erupted between supporters of Jumblat and Wahhab after the Tawheed chief’s photos were removed from several Shouf areas.
One of the perpetrators was arrested amid an exchange of fire, before the Lebanese Army intervened to bring the situation under control.
Jumblat and Wahhab were quick to contain the dispute and defuse tension.
The PSP leader said he was against his supporters removing the photos of rival candidates.
“Leave them and ignore them. Only the preferential vote would decide the winner,” Jumblat wrote in a tweet in reference to the electoral law.
For his part, Wahhab called for calm and urged his supporters not to provoke disputes over a photo.
The former minister added that winning seats was not worth a drop of blood.
Other intra-Druze disputes erupted in Lebanon early this week after Minister Talal Arslan, the leader of the Lebanese Democratic Party, wrote a letter to Jumblat in which he said the PSP leader had gained his force by ruling a weak community through intimidation.
“No need to enter in disputes with the Emir of preaching and rhetoric,” Jumblat responded to Arslan on his Twitter account.
The widening differences among Druze leaders come three weeks prior to the parliamentary elections.
In the Shouf electoral district, six lists are competing for the May 6 polls after political forces failed to agree on forming a consensual list.
