The Daily Star - Municipal council in north on brink of collapse, days after by-elections, May 10 2012

BATROUN, Lebanon: The municipal council in a north Lebanon village faces collapse, just days after by-elections were held in over three dozen towns and villages across the country.

Ebrin’s municipal council is teetering after the deputy mayor and five council members submitted their resignations Monday morning, hours after by-elections wrapped up. By-elections are not held regularly and if the council collapses, Ebrin may have to spend several months waiting for a new local government.

Following disputes among the 12 members of the municipal council over local development projects, Deputy Mayor Majed Tanious from the Free Patriotic Movement submitted his resignation to the qaimaqam. Council members Ghassan Assaf – from the Marada Movement – Alain Wakim, Antoine Nassif, Camille Roukoz – all from the FPM – and Fares Tannous from the Lebanese Forces also resigned. The resignations were sent to the governor of north Lebanon Tuesday, but have not yet been signed.

The council was elected in 2010 with two members from the March 14 camp, and 10 from their March 8 rivals. But one member told The Daily Star that resignations were not a reflection of current national political divisions.

According to Tanious, the dispute centered on “mismanagement and unilateral decision-making” by the mayor.

“[This] led us to submit our final resignations after trying for two years to engage in dialogue with the mayor. Because of our respect for the trust given to us by the residents of Ebrin, we don’t want to continue in our posts if we can’t achieve their demands,” he said, adding “Our decision to resign is final.

For his part, Ebrin Mayor Sassine Fares told The Daily Star that he has not given up hope of a compromise and is working to convince the members to withdraw their resignations. According to Fares, some council members have been trying to encroach on his authority and three of them have ambitions to become the village’s mayor.

“I’ve made many phone calls to politicians, but they told me they don’t intervene in municipal affairs ... I hope that we arrive at a solution and they reverse their decision as soon as possible, since the village requires true efforts for development to take place,” Fares said.

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