Hezbollah Avoids US Sanctions… Electorally
Asharq Al-Awsat Saturday, 24 February, 2018 - 08:30
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1185591/hezbollah-avoids-us-sanctions%E2%80%A6-electorally

Beirut - Nazeer Rida

A clause in Lebanon’s new electoral law allowed Hezbollah to circumvent US
financial sanctions that ban the party from opening bank accounts.

US financial sanctions prohibit Lebanese banks from opening accounts for
people linked to Hezbollah, although the party’s deputies in Parliament have
accounts in Lebanese pounds, to which their salaries are transferred.

The sixth paragraph of the electoral law’s Article 59 provides a solution to
the candidacy of persons who are unable to open bank accounts or are on the
sanctions lists.

It states that when it is impossible to open a bank account by any candidate
or electoral list for reasons beyond the control of either of them, “the
funds allocated to the electoral campaign of the candidate or the list shall
be deposited in a public fund established by the Ministry of Finance.”

Article 59 of the electoral law requires candidates and lists to “open an
account in a bank operating in Lebanon under the name of ‘the electoral
campaign account’ and attach a statement from the bank confirming the
opening of the account mentioned therein and showing the account number and
the name of the owner. The electoral campaign account shall not be subject
to bank secrecy.”

Well-informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the creation of
such fund was a means to circumvent the US sanctions, adding that
legislators, who contributed to the drafting of the electoral law, “have
noted this dilemma and avoided the US sanctions by devising a new mechanism
that allowed candidates to submit their candidacy and deposit money in a
fund that has nothing to do with Lebanese banks.”

On Monday, Hezbollah announced the candidacy of 10 of its members, featuring
five new figures, to run for the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled
for May 6.

While legislators found a loophole to solve the dilemma facing “Hezbollah”
candidates, they failed to consider another problem that would challenge the
work of the election supervisory body, which will be represented by the
inability to verify the electoral spending of these candidates, since the
law states in paragraph 60 that the spending process “must always fall under
a banking process (transfers, checks, credit cards...).”

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Dr. Paul Morcos, the head of Justicia legal
organization, said that the sixth article of paragraph 59 of the law, did
not exist in the first draft of the law, and was created to solve the
dilemma of nominating people who are unable to open bank accounts.

“The draft-law was not initially set to include such addendum, which allows
some candidates who may fall under US sanctions to open or use a direct
account with the Ministry of Finance,” Morcos remarked.