Consolidation of efforts or external pressure?

Within the framework of what it called “unifying efforts in the second Beirut”, “Beirut Madinati” announced its withdrawal from the electoral battle in Beirut’s second district in favor of the “Beirut Change” list. The main reason for this withdrawal, according to the group’s sources, is due to the “certainty of civil society groups that distributing them within multiple lists will lead to a low voter turnout, frustration of voters, and the loss of Beirut My City list and Beirut list change together by not securing the outcome. Therefore, supporting one list ensures that the votes for change are cast in one direction, especially since there are two electoral blocks, the first for the Amal movement and Hezbollah and the second for the Association of Projects, while all other votes are dispersed, which means that whoever boycotts or will not vote will be from outside the two blocks and will harm the civil society regulations ». Note that other sources placed the withdrawal within the framework of external pressure on the groups in order to prevent the dispersal of votes among them in the face of the duo’s list, bearing in mind that the withdrawal did not apply to Beirut I. “Beirut Madinati” confirmed that its list will remain in the first Beirut district, and confirmed that it “will not apologize for not compromising in First Beirut on the principles and the political ceiling, and that none of its candidates is backed by a banker, was not in the system, was close to it, or benefited from it (in reference to Paula Yacoubian), and that none of them was proud of the Mar Mikhael agreement that brought us to this point (in reference to the former Aounist leader Ziad Abs, who was a key member in formulating the understanding).