Elections in Lebanon
Encyclopedia
Elections in Lebanon gives information on election
and election results in Lebanon
.
(Majles el Nuwwéb in Lebanese). Since the elections of 1992 (the first since the reforms of the Taif Agreement
of 1989 removed the built-in majority previously enjoyed by Christians and distributed the seats equally between Christians and Muslims), the Parliament has had 128 seats. The term is four years.
Seats in the Parliament are confessionally distributed but elected by universal suffrage
. Each religious community has an allotted number of seats in the Parliament (see the table below). They do not represent only their co-religionists, however; all candidates in a particular constituency, regardless of religious affiliation, must receive a plurality of the total vote, which includes followers of all confessions. The system was designed to minimize inter-sectarian competition and maximize cross-confessional cooperation: candidates are opposed only by co-religionists, but must seek support from outside of their own faith in order to be elected.
In practice, this system has led to charges of gerrymandering
. The opposition Qornet Shehwan Gathering
, a group opposed to the previous pro-Syria
n regimes, has claimed that constituency boundaries have been drawn so as to allow many Shi'a Muslims to be elected from Shi'a-majority constituencies (where the Hizbullah Party is strong), while allocating many Christian members to Muslim-majority constituencies, forcing Christian politicians to represent Muslim interests. (Similar charges, but in reverse, were made against the Chamoun
administration in the 1950s).
The following table sets out the confessional allocation of seats in the Parliament before and after the Taif Agreement
.
Before the next election in 2013, the electoral law will be reformed. Among the changes most likely are a reduction of the voting age from 21 to 18, a more proportional electoral system and reforms to the oversight of elections.
Lebanon has numerous political parties, but they play a much less significant role in Lebanese politics
than they do in most parliamentary democracies. Many of the "parties" are simply lists of candidates endorsed by a prominent national or local figure. Loose coalitions, usually organized locally, are formed for electoral purposes by negotiation among clan leaders and candidates representing various religious communities; such coalitions usually exist only for the election, and rarely form a cohesive bloc in the Parliament
after the election. No single party has ever won more than 12.5 percent of the seats in the Parliament, and no coalition of parties has won more than 35 percent.
Especially outside of the major cities, elections tend to focus more on local than national issues, and it is not unusual for a party to join an electoral ticket in one constituency while aligned with a rival party - even an ideologically opposite party - in another constituency.
Lebanese presidential elections are indirect, with the President being elected to a 6 year term by the Parliament.
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Total
!style="background-color:#31a5ff" align=right|% 14M
!style="background-color:#31a5ff" align=right|14 March
!style="background-color:#ff5400" align=right|% 8M
!style="background-color:#ff5400" align=right|8 March
|-
|rowspan=3 valign=up|Beirut
19
|Beirut 1
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |52.1%
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |47.9%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Beirut 2
|align="right" |4
|align="right" |50.5%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |49.5%
|align="right" |2
|-
|Beirut 3
|align="right" |10
|align="right" |69.6%
|align="right" |10
|align="right" |31.4%
|align="right" |0
|-
|rowspan=3 valign=up|Bekaa 23
|Baalbek
+Hermel
|align="right" |10
|align="right" |21.6%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |78.4%
|align="right" |10
|-
|Zahleh
|align="right" |7
|align="right" |52.7%
|align="right" |7
|align="right" |47.3%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Rashaya
+West Bekaa
|align="right" |6
|align="right" |53.3%
|align="right" |6
|align="right" |46.7%
|align="right" |0
|-
|rowspan=6 valign=up|Mount Lebanon 35
|Jbeil
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |39.6%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |60.4%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Kisrawan
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |44.9%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |55.1%
|align="right" |5
|-
|North Metn
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |48.4%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |51.6%
|align="right" |6
|-
|Baabda
|align="right" |6
|align="right" |43.8%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |56.2%
|align="right" |6
|-
|Aley
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |61.2%
|align="right" |4
|align="right" |38.8%
|align="right" |1
|-
|Chouf
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |75.6%
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |24.4%
|align="right" |0
|-
|rowspan=7 valign=up|North Lebanon 28
|Akkar
|align="right" |7
|align="right" |63.1%
|align="right" |7
|align="right" |36.9%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Dinniyeh
+Minnieh
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |70.9%
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |29.1%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Bsharreh
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |73.4%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |26.6%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Tripoli
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |63.5%
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |36.5%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Zgharta
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |44.2%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |55.8%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Koura
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |51.1%
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |48.9%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Batrun
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |52.2%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |47.8%
|align="right" |0
|-
|rowspan=7 valign=up|South Lebanon 23
|Saida
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |63.9%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |36.1%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Tyre
|align="right" |4
|align="right" |06.8%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |93.2%
|align="right" |4
|-
|Zahrani
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |10.0%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |90.0%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Hasbaya
+Marjeyoun
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |21.4%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |78.6%
|align="right" |5
|-
|Nabatiyeh
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |11.6%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |88.4%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Bint Jbeil
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |05.8%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |94.2%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Jezzine
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |25.5%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |74.5%
|align="right" |3
|-
|style="background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=2|Total 128
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|128
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#31a5ff"|45.5%
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#31a5ff"|71
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#ff5400"|54.5%
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#ff5400"|57
|}
The last elections took place on June 7, 2009. The Rafik Hariri Martyr List, an anti-Syrian bloc led by Saad Hariri
, captured control of the legislature winning 71 of the 128 available seats. The Amal
-Hezbollah alliance won 30 seats, with 27 seats going to the Free Patriotic Movement
and allied parties.
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
and election results in Lebanon
Politics of Lebanon
Lebanon is a parliamentary republic within the overall framework of confessionalism, a form of consociationalism in which the highest offices are proportionately reserved for representatives from certain religious communities. The constitution grants the people the right to change their government...
.
Parliamentary electoral system
Lebanon's national legislature is called the Assembly of RepresentativesParliament of Lebanon
The Parliament of Lebanon is the national parliament of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year terms in multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanon's diverse Christian and Muslim denominations. Lebanon has universal adult suffrage...
(Majles el Nuwwéb in Lebanese). Since the elections of 1992 (the first since the reforms of the Taif Agreement
Taif Agreement
The Taif Agreement was an agreement reached to provide "the basis for the ending of the civil war and the return to political normalcy in Lebanon." Negotiated in Taif, Saudi Arabia, it was designed to end the decades-long Lebanese civil war, politically accommodate the demographic...
of 1989 removed the built-in majority previously enjoyed by Christians and distributed the seats equally between Christians and Muslims), the Parliament has had 128 seats. The term is four years.
Seats in the Parliament are confessionally distributed but elected by universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
. Each religious community has an allotted number of seats in the Parliament (see the table below). They do not represent only their co-religionists, however; all candidates in a particular constituency, regardless of religious affiliation, must receive a plurality of the total vote, which includes followers of all confessions. The system was designed to minimize inter-sectarian competition and maximize cross-confessional cooperation: candidates are opposed only by co-religionists, but must seek support from outside of their own faith in order to be elected.
In practice, this system has led to charges of gerrymandering
Gerrymandering
In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts...
. The opposition Qornet Shehwan Gathering
Qornet Shehwan Gathering
The Qornet Shehwan Gathering is a Lebanese political organization, comprising politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen, mostly Christian and ranging in ideology from the centre-right to the center-left. The organization is not a political party in the classical sense: its members belong to,...
, a group opposed to the previous pro-Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n regimes, has claimed that constituency boundaries have been drawn so as to allow many Shi'a Muslims to be elected from Shi'a-majority constituencies (where the Hizbullah Party is strong), while allocating many Christian members to Muslim-majority constituencies, forcing Christian politicians to represent Muslim interests. (Similar charges, but in reverse, were made against the Chamoun
Camille Chamoun
Camille Nimr Chamoun was President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958, and one of the country's main Christian leaders during most of the Lebanese Civil War ....
administration in the 1950s).
The following table sets out the confessional allocation of seats in the Parliament before and after the Taif Agreement
Taif Agreement
The Taif Agreement was an agreement reached to provide "the basis for the ending of the civil war and the return to political normalcy in Lebanon." Negotiated in Taif, Saudi Arabia, it was designed to end the decades-long Lebanese civil war, politically accommodate the demographic...
.
Before the next election in 2013, the electoral law will be reformed. Among the changes most likely are a reduction of the voting age from 21 to 18, a more proportional electoral system and reforms to the oversight of elections.
Lebanon has numerous political parties, but they play a much less significant role in Lebanese politics
Politics of Lebanon
Lebanon is a parliamentary republic within the overall framework of confessionalism, a form of consociationalism in which the highest offices are proportionately reserved for representatives from certain religious communities. The constitution grants the people the right to change their government...
than they do in most parliamentary democracies. Many of the "parties" are simply lists of candidates endorsed by a prominent national or local figure. Loose coalitions, usually organized locally, are formed for electoral purposes by negotiation among clan leaders and candidates representing various religious communities; such coalitions usually exist only for the election, and rarely form a cohesive bloc in the Parliament
Parliament of Lebanon
The Parliament of Lebanon is the national parliament of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year terms in multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanon's diverse Christian and Muslim denominations. Lebanon has universal adult suffrage...
after the election. No single party has ever won more than 12.5 percent of the seats in the Parliament, and no coalition of parties has won more than 35 percent.
Especially outside of the major cities, elections tend to focus more on local than national issues, and it is not unusual for a party to join an electoral ticket in one constituency while aligned with a rival party - even an ideologically opposite party - in another constituency.
Lebanese presidential elections are indirect, with the President being elected to a 6 year term by the Parliament.
Latest election
colspan=2|Election Results for each alliance!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Total
!style="background-color:#31a5ff" align=right|% 14M
!style="background-color:#31a5ff" align=right|14 March
!style="background-color:#ff5400" align=right|% 8M
!style="background-color:#ff5400" align=right|8 March
|-
|rowspan=3 valign=up|Beirut
19
|Beirut 1
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |52.1%
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |47.9%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Beirut 2
|align="right" |4
|align="right" |50.5%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |49.5%
|align="right" |2
|-
|Beirut 3
|align="right" |10
|align="right" |69.6%
|align="right" |10
|align="right" |31.4%
|align="right" |0
|-
|rowspan=3 valign=up|Bekaa 23
|Baalbek
+Hermel
|align="right" |10
|align="right" |21.6%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |78.4%
|align="right" |10
|-
|Zahleh
|align="right" |7
|align="right" |52.7%
|align="right" |7
|align="right" |47.3%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Rashaya
+West Bekaa
|align="right" |6
|align="right" |53.3%
|align="right" |6
|align="right" |46.7%
|align="right" |0
|-
|rowspan=6 valign=up|Mount Lebanon 35
|Jbeil
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |39.6%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |60.4%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Kisrawan
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |44.9%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |55.1%
|align="right" |5
|-
|North Metn
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |48.4%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |51.6%
|align="right" |6
|-
|Baabda
|align="right" |6
|align="right" |43.8%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |56.2%
|align="right" |6
|-
|Aley
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |61.2%
|align="right" |4
|align="right" |38.8%
|align="right" |1
|-
|Chouf
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |75.6%
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |24.4%
|align="right" |0
|-
|rowspan=7 valign=up|North Lebanon 28
|Akkar
|align="right" |7
|align="right" |63.1%
|align="right" |7
|align="right" |36.9%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Dinniyeh
+Minnieh
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |70.9%
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |29.1%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Bsharreh
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |73.4%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |26.6%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Tripoli
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |63.5%
|align="right" |8
|align="right" |36.5%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Zgharta
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |44.2%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |55.8%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Koura
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |51.1%
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |48.9%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Batrun
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |52.2%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |47.8%
|align="right" |0
|-
|rowspan=7 valign=up|South Lebanon 23
|Saida
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |63.9%
|align="right" |2
|align="right" |36.1%
|align="right" |0
|-
|Tyre
|align="right" |4
|align="right" |06.8%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |93.2%
|align="right" |4
|-
|Zahrani
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |10.0%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |90.0%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Hasbaya
+Marjeyoun
|align="right" |5
|align="right" |21.4%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |78.6%
|align="right" |5
|-
|Nabatiyeh
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |11.6%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |88.4%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Bint Jbeil
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |05.8%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |94.2%
|align="right" |3
|-
|Jezzine
|align="right" |3
|align="right" |25.5%
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |74.5%
|align="right" |3
|-
|style="background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=2|Total 128
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|128
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#31a5ff"|45.5%
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#31a5ff"|71
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#ff5400"|54.5%
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#ff5400"|57
|}
The last elections took place on June 7, 2009. The Rafik Hariri Martyr List, an anti-Syrian bloc led by Saad Hariri
Saad Hariri
Saad-eddine Rafiq Al-Hariri is a Saudi-Lebanese billionaire who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 2009 until 2011. He is the second son of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister who was assassinated in 2005...
, captured control of the legislature winning 71 of the 128 available seats. The Amal
Amal Movement
Amal Movement is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments the acronym for which, in Arabic, is "amal", meaning "hope."Amal was founded in 1975 as the militia wing of the Movement of the Disinherited, a Shi'a political movement founded by Musa...
-Hezbollah alliance won 30 seats, with 27 seats going to the Free Patriotic Movement
Free Patriotic Movement
The Free Patriotic Movement , also known as the "Aounist Movement" , is a Lebanese political party, led by Michel Aoun and allied with Hezbollah, The movement was officially declared a political party on September 18, 2005Though most of the party's support comes from Lebanon's...
and allied parties.
External links
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- Libanvote: an exhaustive record of all elections since 1927, with a constituency-by-constituency breakdown of votes by candidate, together with any subsequent byelections for particular constituencies.
- Mohammad Bazzi: Lebanese Election Preview Council on Foreign Relations
- Naharnet Elections 2009 Coverage: Candidate and District News
- Election Laws and Codes
- Seat Allocation by Confession by District (map)
- Sharek961 empowers Lebanese citizens to promote transparency by sending in eyewitness reports on all election-related incidents or issues. People across Lebanon can send in reports through SMS, email, and the web.