Lebanon's Hezbollah: Parliamentary elections to take place on time

Announcement comes days after Saad Al Hariri announced he had withdrawn from politics

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on Sunday it saw no reason to delay May's parliamentary elections.

The statement came just days after Saad Hariri announced he had withdrawn from politics and would not run in the coming polls.

Mr Hariri, Lebanon's leading Sunni Muslim politician and three-time former prime minister, declared on Monday he would boycott the vote.

"All indications are that the parliamentary elections will take place on time," said Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy leader of the heavily armed Hezbollah.

Maronite Christian patriarch Bechara Boutros Al Rai, a Hezbollah critic, said on Sunday Mr Hariri's move must not be used as an excuse to call for a delay.

Hezbollah's adversaries hope to overturn the majority won by the group and allies including President Michel Aoun's Christian Free Patriotic Movement in 2018.

Since then, a financial crisis has plunged the bulk of Lebanese into poverty. The meltdown came to a head in late 2019, when economic grievances ignited protests against the ruling elite over decades of corruption and mismanagement.

Despite this, Hezbollah does not expect the election to yield a result much different to 2018, Mr Qassem said, dismissing what he described as expectations of parliament being turned "upside down".

Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and his sons Saad, left and Bahaa, centre, perform Umrah at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, in 2003. Saad would go on to become prime minister in 2009, four years after the assassination of his father. All photos: AFP

Saad Hariri and Solange Gemayel, the widow of assassinated president and Christian warlord Bashir Gemayel, attend a press conference in Beirut in 2005, where Hariri announced his list for the coming elections. Ms Gemayel became a shoo-in for Beirut's only Maronite Christian seat.

Saad with Rafik Hariri's sister, Bahia, during the funeral procession for former minister Bassel Fleihan, Hariri's close aide, who died from wounds sustained in the February 14 bomb blast that killed the prime minister.

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa receives Saad Hariri on December 4, 2005 in Abu Dhabi.

Mr Hariri, newly-elected Lebanese parliamentarian, meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York, in 2005, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Former French president Jacques Chirac with Hariri in 2005, after a meeting at the Elysee palace in Paris.

With Jordan's King Abdullah II on the sidelines of UN General Assembly in New York, 2005.

US envoy David Welch, left, then assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, meets Mr Hariri in Beirut, in 2007. Mr Welch held talks in Lebanon to discuss a presidential void.

With Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, in 2011.

French President Emmanuel Macron walks between Saad Hariri and UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, right, as they arrive to attend the Lebanon International Support Group meeting in Paris on December 8, 2017.

Mr Hariri delivers a speech to mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of his father in Beirut, 2015.

With former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, in 2008.

Mr Hariri greets Lebanon's newly-elected Sunni Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Deryan, in 2014.

Former US president George W Bush shares a light moment with Mr Hariri during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, in 2006.

Vice President and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, then Crown Prince of Dubai, receives Mr Hariri in 2005.

With Lebanese President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Beirut, in 2020.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin meets Mr Hariri in Moscow, in 2021.

With then Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, in 2005, at the UN in New York.

France's former president Francois Hollande, right, welcomes Mr Hariri to a meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, in 2012.

Mr Hariri salutes thousands of supporters in Lebanon's Miniyeh region.

Greeting supporters upon arrival at his home in Beirut, in 2017, after a mysterious odyssey that resulted in him announcing his resignation while in Saudi Arabia. Hariri told cheering supporters that he was staying.

With former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in 2005.

Meeting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Beirut, in 2005.

Hezbollah opinion polls across Lebanon showed "the results of the election will be close to the make-up of the current parliament, with slight changes that do not affect the general make-up", he said.

"Therefore we say to those who have high hopes: 'put your feet on the ground'," said Mr Qassem, whose group is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including the US.

On Friday, Mr Hariri's brother Bahaa Hariri announced he is entering politics. A fierce critic of Hezbollah, he plans to support candidates but will not be running himself.