Chamber of Deputies (Lebanon)

Parliament building in Beirut

The Chamber of Deputies ( French Chambre des députés , Arabic مجلس النواب, DMG Maǧlis to-Nuwwāb ) is the unicameral - Parliament of Lebanon .

It is elected for a four-year term in general elections and currently consists of 128 members. Its main functions are the election of the president , the endorsement of the government (despite the appointment by the president, the prime minister and cabinet must win the confidence of parliament) and the passing of laws and the budget. In contrast to other Arab states, it has an influential role in Lebanon's political system .

The parliament building is located in the center of the Lebanese capital Beirut on the western side of the Sāhat an-Najma , the star square opposite the Beirut clock tower .

Distribution of seats

A uniqueness of the Lebanese suffrage is the principle of denominational parity : every religious community has a fixed number of representatives in parliament. In the elections between 1932 and 1972 (the last before the beginning of the Lebanese civil war ), the seats were split between Christians and Muslims at a ratio of 6: 5, with some variations roughly reflecting the roughly proportionality of their size. During the 1960s, dissatisfaction arose among Muslims with this system, as their own higher birthrate and the higher number of emigrants among Christians at that time had likely created a Muslim majority that was not taken into account by the distribution of seats in parliament. Christian politicians, however, were not ready to agree to a change in the system. This was one of the factors that led to the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975. The 1989 Taif Agreement , which ended the civil war, reallocated the seats in Parliament. As a result, both sides, Christians and Muslims, were given equal representation of 64 of the 128 seats each.

Although established on the basis of their denomination, members are subject to general election regardless of their own beliefs and are therefore forced to seek support outside of their own religious community, unless their denomination dominates the respective constituency.

The Taif Agreement changed the seat allocation as follows:

Allocation of seats in the Lebanese Chamber of Deputies
Denomination	Before typhoon	After Taif
Maronites	30th	34
Greek Orthodox	11	14th
Greek Catholics	6th	8th
Armenian Orthodox	4th	5
Armenian Catholics	1	1
Protestants	1	1
Other Christs	1	1
Total Christians	54	64
Sunnis	20th	27
Shiites	19th	27
Druze	6th	8th
Alawites	0	2
Total Muslims	45	64
total	99	128

Governorate	Constituency	Shia	Sunnis	Druze	Alawites	Maro niten	Greek Orthodox	Greek Catholic	Armenian Orthodox	Other Christians
Beirut 19	Beirut 1		2			1	1	1		1 (Protestants)
	Beirut 2	1	2				1		1	1 (other)
	Beirut 3	1	2	1					2	1 (arm-cath.)
Bekaa 23	Bekaa + Hermel	6th	2			1		1
	Pay	1	1			1	1	2	1
	Rashaya + Westbekaa	1	2	1		1	1
Mount Lebanon 35	Jbeil + Kisrawan	1				7th
	North Metn					4th	2	1	1
	Baabda + Aley	2		3		5	1
	Chouf		2	2		3		1
Northern Lebanon 28	Akkar, Dinniyeh, Bisharri		5		1	3	2
Northern Lebanon 28	Tripoli, Zgharta, Batrun, Kurah		6th		1	6th	4th
South Lebanon 23	Sidon, Tire	9	2					1
South Lebanon 23	Hasbaya, Nabatae, Jezzine	5	1	1		2	1	1
Total 128		27	27	8th	2	34	14th	8th	5	3

Electoral system

See main article: Parliamentary elections in Lebanon 2005

The constituency system has been criticized over the years by many politicians who claim that it is easy for the government to manipulate the borders through gerrymandering . The constituency of Baabda - Alayh , which was formed for the 2000 elections, is an example: the area around Alayh (east of Beirut ), which is predominantly inhabited by Druze, was incorporated into an electoral district with the predominantly Christian area around Baabda. The same thing is happening in southern Lebanon , which means that although some seats in the electoral district are assigned to Christians, they must stand for election in a predominantly Muslim area. Opposition politicians, mostly Christians, have accused that the constituency borders in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 elections were largely manipulated by gerrymandering in order to achieve a pro- Syrian majority. Because of this, there was also a reputation for creating a single national constituency. Until the multitude of religious and political groups agree on a change in the electoral system, the controversy is unlikely to be resolved.

speaker

The Speaker of the Parliament, according to the constitution, a Shiite his Muslim must be elected for the entire term of the Parliament. He forms a kind of "Troika", together with the President (always a Maronite Christian) and the Prime Minister (always a Sunni Muslim). The speaker's rights are unusually extensive in relation to other democratic systems; for example, the speaker has the right to veto all laws passed by a majority in parliament. The current speaker is the leader of the Amal Movement , Nabih Berri .

Political parties

There are numerous political parties in Lebanon . Many of them are little more than ad hoc electoral lists, which are created through negotiations between influential local people and represent the various denominations; these lists usually exist for election purposes only and do not constitute a discernible parliamentary grouping after the election. Other parties are personality-oriented and are composed of supporters of a current or past political leader or warlord . Few of the parties, on the other hand, are based on a particular political ideology, although most of them pursue one at least in theory. No single party has ever won more than 12.5% of the seats and by 2005 no coalition had won more than a third of the seats. The elections in May / June 2005 , however, resulted in a clear majority (72 seats out of 128) for the coalition led by Saad Hariri (the son of the assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri ); half of the seats were won by Hariri's own future movement . The Hezbollah won 14 seats.

composition

Alliances	Seats	Parties	Seats
Alliance of March 14th	72	Future Movement ( Tayyār al-Mustaqbal )	36
		Progressive Socialist Party ( al-Ḥizb at-taqaddumī al-ištirākī )	16
		Lebanese Forces ( al-Quwwāt al-lubnāniyya )	5
		Qurnat Shahwan Collection Kata'ib Party ( Hizb al-Kata'ib al-Lubnaniyya , also known as Phalange ) National Liberal Party ( Ḥizb al-waṭaniyyīn al-aḥrār ) Independent	6th
		Tripoli block	3
		Democratic Renewal Movement ( Ḥarakat at-taǧaddud ad-dīmuqrāṭī )	1
		Democratic Left ( Ḥarakat al-Yasār ad-Dīmuqrāṭī )	1
		Independent	4th
Resistance and development block	35	Amal movement ( Harakat Amal )	15th
		Hezbollah ( Ḥizbu 'llāh )	14th
		Syrian Social Nationalist Party ( al-Ḥizb as-Sūrī al-Qaumī al-Iǧtimāʿī )	2
		Other	4th
Aoun alliance	21st	Free Patriotic Movement ( at-Tayyār al-waṭanī al-ḥurr )	14th
		Skaff block	5
		Murr block	2
total			128

Women's suffrage

Before independence, the administration as a French protected area (Trust Territory) proclaimed the equality of all citizens before the law in Article 7 of the Constitution of May 26, 1926, women were not mentioned separately. In 1926 active women's suffrage was introduced, but it was tied to educational requirements. In 1943 the country became independent. From 1952 all men had to vote, while women 21 and over with elementary education had the right to vote. Between 1952 and 1953, the electoral law was redesigned to introduce active and passive general women's suffrage . According to a different source, women still need a certificate of education in order to exercise their right to vote, unlike men (as of 2007), while men can vote without any restrictions; there is also compulsory voting for men and not for women.

Individual evidence

↑ Official parliament page . Accessed June 6, 2015.
^ Council on Foreign Relations ( Memento of September 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d - New Parline: the IPU's Open Data Platform (beta). In: data.ipu.org. May 26, 1926, accessed October 3, 2018 .
^ Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 40.
↑ Pamela Paxton, Melanie M. Hughes, Jennifer Green: The International Women | s Movement and Women's Political Representation, 1893-2003 . In: American Sociological Review, Volume 71, 2006, pp. 898-920, quoted from Pamela Paxton, Melanie M. Hughes: Women, Politics and Power. A global perspective. Pine Forge Press Los Angeles, London 2007, p. 62.

33.89683 35.50398Coordinates: 33 ° 53 '48.6 " N , 35 ° 30' 14.3" E

[1] Official parliament page . Accessed June 6, 2015.

[2] Council on Foreign Relations ( Memento of September 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive )

[ipu-413446-3] - New Parline: the IPU's Open Data Platform (beta). In: data.ipu.org. May 26, 1926, accessed October 3, 2018 .

[Martin40-4] Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 40.

[Paxton62-5] Pamela Paxton, Melanie M. Hughes, Jennifer Green: The International Women | s Movement and Women's Political Representation, 1893-2003 . In: American Sociological Review, Volume 71, 2006, pp. 898-920, quoted from Pamela Paxton, Melanie M. Hughes: Women, Politics and Power. A global perspective. Pine Forge Press Los Angeles, London 2007, p. 62.