Tag Archives: France

The French Presidential Elections: How Lebanon Voted

The results of the French presidential elections have been revealed. François Hollande, sadly, barely edged out Nicolas Sarkozy with 51.62% of the votes.

In the first round of the vote, Lebanese-French gave Nicolas Sarkozy an edge over Hollande with more than 55% of the vote. You can check out the numbers for the first round here.

For the second round, the difference is even more drastic. But there’s something telling about the results.

 

Nicolas Sarkozy won in every single voting station in Lebanon, apart from two in West Beirut, one in Tripoli and one in Saida.

Don’t call me sectarian for this but the stereotypes about who’s voting for who are apparently true. And it is an interesting observation, nonetheless. Lebanese Christians, based on the predominantly Christian areas of East Beirut and Jounieh, overwhelmingly voted for Sarkozy, while Lebanese Muslims (Saida, Tripoli & West Beirut) favored Hollande.

The discrepancy is, I suppose, based on both candidate’s differing views to immigration. I would assume Lebanese-French Muslims believe a France under Hollande would make things easier for their families here. I guess people can dream.

Either way, an overwhelming majority from Lebanese-French to Sarkozy. And Lebanon sides with the Right. Again.

Nicolas Sarkozy & Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaigns – Who’s Copying Who?

If you’ve been following the French presidential elections closely, you’d have noticed the Sarkozy camp has been sharing attractive-looking infographics of his achievements while in office. Here are a few examples:

Well, you get the idea.

Recently, I saw on Barack Obama’s twitter account a very similar infographic released as well:

The resemblance between Sarkozy and Obama’s posters is uncanny: the colors, the style, the font size, etc….

The first Sarkozy image of the sort was shared on April 17th. The one by Obama was released on April 28th. I would be more inclined to believe the Obama campaign is taking a few hints from the Sarkozy camp, seeing as the latter’s campaign is wrapping up with the final round of elections set for next week.

With the American elections set for November, I’m sure we’ll see much more posters like these from the campaign office of Mr. Obama.

 

 

The French Presidential Elections – Round One: How Lebanon Voted

As expected, both Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande advanced to the second round of the French presidential elections to be held on May 6th.

According to official results, Sarkozy got 26.1% of the votes while Hollande got 29%. The current polls show the Socialist Hollande leading Sakozy 54% to 46% for the second round. The shock of the night, however, was a huge score by the woman of the French “Front National” Marine Le Pen who managed to break the two-party dichotomy of France by getting 18% of the votes, according to the latest results.

Her score will come as a headache for the socialists who are deciding to round cloud nine up until May 6th. If Le Pen endorses Sarkozy, all bets are off.

But political analysis aside, here’s how the situation was in Lebanon yesterday. 15000 French people are registered to vote in Lebanon, out of which 51.5% voted. On top of the French residing in Lebanon, 1600 French residing in Syria are eligible to vote in Lebanon due to the situation in their country. Out of those, only 28% cast their ballots.

As a reminder, in 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy got 51.5% in the first round in Lebanon. This time, however, he got 54.47%, beating Hollande who only got 19.81%.

On the other hand, Marine Le Pen got 9% among French-Lebanese voters, almost double what her father managed in 2007 in Lebanon but still less than the result she got in France.

All foreign territoires put together have Sarkozy ahead of Hollande at 38% to 28.31%. Marine Le Pen came in fourth with 5.34%. The total participation in Lebanon is above the average for French expats, which settled at 40%.

Altogether, here’s yet another elections where Lebanese voters who hold a second nationality go with a right wing candidate.

The French Presidential Elections – Round One

Over 45 million eligible French people are heading to cast their ballots in the first round of their presidential elections today, of which no one is expected to take the absolute majority of votes needed to win and not head to a second round between the top 2 vote getters.

Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande are neck and neck in the most recent published polls and both are expected to qualify to the second round.

In Lebanon, the registered French people residing in Lebanon are around 13,000. Of those, more than 7000 are expected to vote, in similar numbers to 2007 where 51.7% voted for Sarkozy in the first round and 71.5% in the second round.

Many more Lebanese-French who reside in France are also eligible to vote. The 2007 numbers from those Lebanese show a drastic preference to Sarkozy as well.

A fraction of Lebanese voters also support far right candidate Le Pen.

(source)

For the French residing in Lebanon, have you voted? Or are you waiting for the more decisive second round to cast your ballot?

Jhony Maalouf: A Lebanese Contestant on French Singing Show: The Voice (La Plus Belle Voix)

Johny Maalouf is a Lebanese contestant who recently made it to the second round of the newly launched French version of the American TV Show The Voice, La Plus Belle Voix, airing on TF1. Leave it to the French to make a two letter title a whole phrase.

The premise of the show consists of three phases: a blind audition where the contestant sings with the judges having their chairs turned away from him (this is the phase Jhony got past). The second phase is called the battle phase where contestants face off in duets and the third phase is the live performances show, which is judged according to audience voting.

Jhony still has a long way to go and it’s our duty as Lebanese to support him. He’s actually quite good, although he seemed very nervous (and justifiably so).

Good luck to Mr. Maalouf on his future progression on “La Plus Belle Voix.”