PostedMay 15, 2022, 9:25 p.m.
This Sunday, nearly four million Lebanese go to the polls to elect the 128 parliamentarians. This election should smile to regulars on the political scene, despite the obvious fed up of the population.
For this election under close surveillance, 3.9 million Lebanese must elect the 128 members of Parliament.
AFP
Polling stations opened on Sunday for the first legislative elections since Lebanon was devastated by numerous crises. Until 7 p.m. (6 p.m. in Switzerland), 3.9 million voters are called to the polls to renew the 128 members of Parliament. Final results are expected on Monday.
The Interior Ministry had promised that electricity would be supplied to polling stations, but local media reported cuts. In addition, an important security deployment was noted by an AFP photographer, in the midst of representatives of political parties and volunteers.
The majority of the 128 seats in Parliament, targeted by 718 candidates, should remain in the hands of the parties that have dominated the Lebanese political scene for more than three decades, while they are nevertheless held responsible for the worst socio-economic crisis in Lebanon’s history, experts warn.
A test for the opposition
The 2018 legislative elections were won by the pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah – the only Lebanese faction to have kept its weapons after the civil war (1975-1990) – and its allies from the Free Patriotic Movement (CPL) and the Amal Movement. Only a few independents were elected four years earlier, before resigning in 2020, in the wake of the deadly explosion at the port of Beirut, which killed more than 200 people.
This election constitutes for the international community one of the prerequisites for financial aid and represents a first test for the opposition groups, which emerged following a massive popular uprising triggered in October 2019, to demand the departure of a political class accused of corruption and incompetence.
(AFP)