Parliamentary election in Lebanon 2009

The parliamentary elections in Lebanon in 2009 took place on July 9th.

background

Since 2005, the political camps in Lebanon have oriented themselves towards their stance towards the powerful neighboring state of Syria and towards the outcome of the cedar revolution , which brought an end to the long-term Syrian occupation. The March 14 alliance makes positive reference to this and the legacy of the murdered Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and is considered pro-Western, while the March 8 alliance is considered to be pro-Syrian and in its name is a reminder of a large demonstration in favor of Syria. It sees Israel as the main enemy of Lebanon and unites, among other things, the Shittish Hezbollah, but also the Christian Free Patriotic Movement . Thus the political contradictions run right through the denominational groups of the extremely fragmented country. Before the election, the process of lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years of age was started, but could not be implemented before the elections as this would have required a constitutional amendment.

Distribution of seats

As a result of the Doha Agreement , a new distribution of seats for the parliamentary elections was decided in 2008; voters still vote according to their affiliation to one of the religious communities.

Results

The turnout was around 55%. The distribution of seats according to parties is as follows:

Alliances		Seats	Parties	Seats
	Alliance of March 14th	71	Future movement	26th
			Progressive Socialist Party	11
			Indépendents 14 de Mars	13
			Forces Libanaises	8th
			Lebanese Social Democratic Party ( Hizb al-Kataeb )	5
			Social Democratic Hntchak Party (Armenians)	2
			Armenian Liberal Democratic Party	1
			Democratic left movement ( ĥarakatu-l-yasāri-d-dimuqrātī )	1
			National Liberal Party ( Hizbu-l-waTaniyyīni-l-aHrār )	1
			Jamaa al-Islamiya	1
	Alliance of March 8th	57	Free Patriotic Movement ( Tayyar Al-Watani Al-Horr )	18th
			Amal movement ( Harakat Amal )	13
			Hezbollah	12
			Lebanese Democratic Party ( Hizb al-democraty al-lubnany )	4th
			Marada movement	3
			Armenian Revolutionary Federation ( Tashnag )	2
			Syrian Social Nationalist Party ( al-Hizb al-Qawmi al-souri al ijtima'i )	2
			Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party	2
			Solidarity Party ( Hizb Al-Tadamon Al-Lubnany )	1
source

Government formation

As is customary due to the complicated political and denominational conditions in Lebanon, the formation of a government took 5 months. It was not until November that an agreement was reached on the composition of the new government: 15 posts for the Alliance of March 14th, 10 for the Alliance of March 8th, while 5 members were nominated by President Michel Suleiman , who sees himself as a neutral authority ; Saad Hariri became the new prime minister (according to the Lebanese constitution, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim). On January 12, 2011, the Saad al-Hariri-led government of national unity, in which several Hezbollah ministers were involved, collapsed. Hezbollah and the ex-general Michel Aoun , allied with Hezbollah, had dismissed their ministers from the government because al-Hariri refused to speak out against the special tribunal for Lebanon , which those responsible for the attack on his father Rafiq al-Hariri are indicting should condemn. After Druze leader Walid Jumblat realigned his political position, not for the first time in the history of Lebanon since the outbreak of the civil war in 1975, and now supports Hezbollah and its allies, the pro- Syrian Najib Miqati , who is close to Hezbollah, succeeded Saad al-Hariri elected to the Prime Minister's office. He was then appointed by President Suleiman. The appointment of Miqati led to violent demonstrations and expressions of displeasure, especially among the Sunni population. In Tripoli, but also in Beirut, car tires were set on fire and barricades were erected.

Web links

• Official Site
• Lebanese Elections 2009 BLOG
• Interactive result map
• Obama's Path Passes Through Lebanon (PDF; 257 kB) by Pol Marillas, Opinion, June 2009; European Union Institute for Security Studies

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lebanon voting age lowered by MPs . In: BBC News , March 19, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2010. 
2. ↑ Michael Slackman: Pro-Western Bloc Defeats Hezbollah in Lebanon Vote , NYT. June 7, 2009. 
3. ↑ جنبلاط: لم أقدم طلب انتساب إلى 8 آذار ( Memento from July 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ International Foundation for Electoral Systems: Lebanon's New Government . November 9th. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 28, 2011. 
5. ^ Robert F. Worth: Impasse Over, Lebanon Forms Cabinet . In: The New York Times , November 10, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2010.