Dr. Kayssar Moawad is a Lebanese physician and politician.
Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus is west across the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2, it is the smallest recognized sovereign state on the mainland Asian continent.
Moawad lost his father at age of 5, who was killed by a member of the Douaihy during the clan battles in Zgharta. Kayssar Moawad studied in Tripoli, where he was active in a leftist student group in the 1970s. He continued his studies in Paris, specializing in oncological surgery. He returned to Lebanon in 1982 and founded a number of institutions in his home area; the Development Committee in Zgharta, free medical clinic and a cultural centre. [1]
The House of El Douaihy, is an important Lebanese and Levantine noble family of French origins of which can be traced up until the 7th century. The first prominent feudal northern Lebanese Maronite Sheikhs (Lords) to have governed Zgharta and Ehden, in northern Lebanon came from the Douaihy clan.
Zgharta (Arabic: زغرتا Classical Syriac: ܙܓܪܬܐ, -- also spelled Zghorta -- is a city in North Lebanon, with an estimated population of around 50,000. It is the second biggest city in Northern Lebanon after Tripoli.
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science, as well as the arts. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2019 population of 12,213,364, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion in 2017. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, and ahead of Zurich, Hong Kong, Oslo and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong Kong, in 2018. The city is a major railway, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily, and is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, but the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015.
Moawad contested the parliamentary elections in 1992 and 1996, confronting Nayla Moawad (a distant relative). He was elected to parliament in 2000, contesting on the list of Suleiman Franjieh. [1]
Nayla Moawad is a Lebanese politician. Outside of Lebanon, she is best known as the widow of former President René Moawad, who was assassinated on 22 November 1989. Within Lebanon, she is a high-profile politician in her own right, having served as a member of the National Assembly since 1991. Following her reelection in June 2005, she was appointed to the Cabinet on 19 July as Minister for Social Affairs.
In 2014 the US$20 million Family Medical Center opened in Zgharta, with Moawad as one of its owners. [2]
Moawad was fielded on the "Pulse of Strong Republic" list in the 2018 Lebanese general election for one of the Maronite seats in Zgharta, but announced his withdrawal from the electoral race on April 27, 2018. [3]
General elections were held in Lebanon on 6 May 2018. Although originally scheduled for 2013, the election was postponed three times in 2013, 2014 and 2017 under various pretexts, including the security situation, the failure of the Parliament to elect a new President, and the technical requirements of holding an election. A new electoral law adopted in 2017 provides a proportional representation system for the first time in the history of the country. Hezbollah and its allies performed well in the elections, while the Future Movement of Prime Minister Saad Hariri saw its bloc shrink by 40%, from 33 to 20 MPs. The parliamentary bloc of the Lebanese Forces almost doubled from eight MPs to 15 MPs, but it was the Free Patriotic Movement who emerged as the largest bloc with 29 MPs, including 18 party members, six pro-FPM independents, and five allies. FPM leader Gebran Bassil stated that FPM has won the elections in Lebanon by getting the largest bloc.
