…and he’ll run for MP:
For fisherman Mahmood Khaled, nicknamed Abu Karam, it’s all about standing up for Lebanon’s poor and downtrodden.
“I have no offices and no money,” the mustachioed 47-year-old father of 15 told AFP.
Khaled admitted that he has little chance of making it into parliament but hopes his campaign will nonetheless force politicians to pay attention to residents of northern Lebanon, many of whom live below the poverty line.
“I am the candidate of the poor and also the poorest of the candidates,” his campaign ads proclaim.
I’m sure we all heard about Ghassan Al-Rahbani and Pierre Hashash throwing in their hats, but this is the first I heard about Abu Karam. If anything, I would vote for him just to make a point against the political establishment. If he does win, I’m sure he’ll be quite busy and won’t have time to add more recruits to his army of 15 kids.
At least he’s got someone’s vote:
“I would vote for the fisherman because he’s the antithesis of everything else available, which hasn’t done us any good for years now,” said Hiba Sahyouni, a 28-year-old anthropologist.
“He’s kind of speaking back and he deserves a chance.”
I’ll be keep an eye out and report Abu Karam’s result.