Few months ahead of Lebanon’s May parliamentary elections, the Future Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement decided to run on a joint list in the Akkar district, signaling a similar alliance in the remaining electoral constituencies. Leading sources from the FPM party told Asharq Al-Awsat: “We agreed in Akkar to support the candidature of MP Hadi Hobeich, who will run for the Maronite seat in the mentioned district.” The sources added that the Lebanese Forces would not run on the same list with the first two parties. A dispute between the Future Movement and the FPM had emerged few weeks ago when the Free Patriotic had asked to name one maronite and one orthodox candidates in the Akkar district. However, the Future Movement was holding on to its candidate Hobeich. The dispute was solved in the past few hours, when the FPM party accepted to receive seats in another district where both parties are running in a joint list, in exchange to naming candidates in Akkar. Around 50 candidates have already presented their candidatures to the Interior Ministry to compete on seven seats in the Akkar district during the upcoming parliamentary elections, divided between three Sunnis, two Orthodox, one Maronite and one Alawite. Around 280,000 voters, including 187,000 Sunnis, are expected to vote in Akkar’s 216 villages and towns. During the 2005 and 2009 parliamentary elections, fought under a majority electoral system, the Future Movement won the entire seats. However, the upcoming elections are based on a proportional electoral law. This law is expected to change the results of the vote and could prevent the Future Movement and the FPM to win all seven seats. Election expert Antoine Moukheiber told Asharq Al-Awsat that the scene of alliances was not yet completed in Akkar. “We might see the surge of at least four lists, the first including the Future Movement and the FPM, the second comprising forces from the March 8 alliance, the third supported by the civil society and the last one including an alliance between MP Khaled Daher and former general director of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, Asharq Rifi,” Moukheiber explained.