Looking closely

If you look closely, things may not appear as they are. The Kisrawan election proved that `Awn still has support in the Christian heartland: his obscure unknown MP, Gilbert Zuwayn, defeated March 14 "heavy weights", like Mansur Al-Bawn and Carlos Iddi, and other local leaders like Faris Buwayz and Farid Haykal Khazin. Of course, in Ashrafiyyah, `Awn lost big, but I aruge that in Ashrafiyyah the other side ran a skillful campaign and used youthful candidates. The choice of Abu Jamra in Ashrafiyyah (somebody from South Lebanon) was dumb. And `Awn direct attacks on Nayla Tuwayni, 26, won her sympathy: and don't underestimate the impact of An-Nahar's all-out campaign for Tuwayni (the granddaughter of its publisher).