By-elections are set to be held Sunday at the headquarters of the Beirut Medical Association, Doctors' House (Beit al-Tabib), in Beirut to replace four outgoing members of the council.

The four outgoing council members, three Shiites and one Christian, are due to be replaced by three Muslims and one Christian, in keeping with the traditional confessional balance. The outgoing members are Jaafar Abbas (Amal movement), Taghrid Hajj Ali (Hezbollah), Mohammad Moussaoui (Hezbollah) and Georges Yared (independent, formerly close to the Kataeb). Two additional members will be elected to the order's pension fund.

Serving the profession

The ballot is not expected to mobilize the profession en masse, given that there are only four seats in contention. However, with one year to go before the election of the next president of the Order of Doctors, it is an opportunity for political parties, particularly the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the Shiite parties Hezbollah and Amal, to assess their political weight within the profession.

Other issues on the candidates' agendas are working conditions for doctors in Lebanon, in particular their fees, pensions, immunity and relationship with third-party payers, against the backdrop of the collapse of the Lebanese lira, the freezing of depositors' money in banks since 2019 and record emigration of members of the medical profession. Since the onset of Lebanon's multifaceted crisis in 2019, nearly 30 percent of doctors have left the country for abroad, according to estimates by the profession. However, some returns have been reported in recent months.

"Thirteen thousand doctors are registered with the Order, but only the 7,000 to 8,000 who have paid their annual dues are authorized to vote on Sunday," Youssef Bakhache, president of the Order, told L'Orient-Le Jour. "This partial ballot is expected to attract between 1,000 and 1,500 voters, bearing in mind that voters generally only turn out en masse for the presidency of the order," he added. Voting will take place between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

A partisan list, a list of independents and a solo candidate

Two lists and a solo candidate are vying for the four seats. Backed by the medical councils of six major teaching hospitals, which have issued a statement to this effect, cardiac surgeon Jean Abi Younes is presenting himself as a serious contender. Abi Younes has asserted his "political independence" and says he is presenting a strategic vision for the profession.

"Involved in arbitration between the hospital, insurance companies and doctors since 2019, I have developed a scientific strategy to enable doctors in the private sector to regain the level of fees they received before the crisis," he explained to L'Orient-Le Jour.

Abi Younes is also believed to have the backing of the Lebanese Forces (LF). "We support an independent candidate, an academic personality with a clear program," said Antoine Challita, coordinator of the LF with the Order of Doctors, without giving a name.

Each member of the council is elected for a three-year term, as is the president of the order. Each year, a ballot is held to replace four of the 15 council members. But the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this practice. For three years, elections were interrupted. In May 2022, the first post-COVID elections were held to elect 15 board members in addition to the chairman. In 2023 and 2024, the four outgoing members were chosen by lot, and the same will be done in 2025.

Doctors' rights first

Facing the solo candidate, the FPM-Hezbollah-Amal list is currently made up of just two names: William Moawad, an FPM candidate, and Jaafar Abbas, an Amal incumbent. "The names of the other candidates should be revealed no later than the day before polling day," says Marwan Zoghbi, coordinator of the liberal professions within the FPM.

For the formation of this list, the traditional consensus between all the major political parties was shattered this year, as it was in 2022. But for William Moawad, a gynecologist, the strength of this list lies in "its willingness to go beyond politics for union cooperation in the service of the profession."

For the moment, only the so-called independent list is complete. Called "Action syndicale indépendante," it includes Antoine Semaan, Roula Ghandour, Mohammad Zaatari and Louis Akiki.