Dima Jamali recaptures Tripoli seat amid low voter turnout

BEIRUT: Low voter turnout mired the by-elections held in Tripoli Sunday, which saw Dima Jamali recapture her seat in Parliament with 68 percent of the vote according to the Electoral Supervisory Committee. 

Jamali had her election invalidated by the Constitutional Council after a successful appeal by Taha Naji, who stood aside in the by-elections after Jamali's candidacy was backed again by Prime Minister Saad Hariri and former premier Najib Mikati along with former ministers Ashraf Rifi and Mohammad Safadi.

The Council’s head Issam Suleiman had said that the investigation launched after Naji's appeal showed evidence of tampering with the ballot results.

11 percent of eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots, which saw Jamali capture 19,398 votes, while Yahya Mawloud came in second with 3,313 votes.

Following her win on Sunday evening, Jamali thanked the people of Tripoli while vowing to work for the city and securing its rights. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="ar" dir="rtl">فوزي هو انتصار لكم! شكرا من القلب لأهلي في طرابلس، الذين وقفوا الى جانبي خلال هذه المرحلة، فقد أثبتم اليوم وفاءكم وأعطيتم الصورة الحقيقية تجاه مدينتكم. أنا معكم اليوم أكثر من أي وقت وسأعمل جاهدة على تحقيق طموحات وآمال ابنائنا المحقة لنعيد هذه المنطقة عاصمة للشمال باقتصادها ونموها <a href="https://t.co/Bualh0xVQj">pic.twitter.com/Bualh0xVQj</a></p>— Dima Jamali ديما جمالي (@JamaliDima) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamaliDima/status/1117712499191816192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Jamali now takes back Tripoli's fifth Sunni parliamentary seat, which was left vacated since the Council's decision in February 2019.