2005 Parliamentary Elections
Background
Electoral law
Election results
International observers
Background
The Lebanese Parliament, formally known as the National Assembly, consists of 128 seats, distributed among Lebanon’s 17 officially recognised religious groups according to quotas agreed upon in the 1989 Taef Accord. Deputies are selected every 4 years through general elections held in each electoral district.
Suffrage is universal for all men and women over 21. However, there are no mechanisms currently in place for voting whilst abroad - expatriates must return to Lebanon if they wish to participate.
Seats are allocated along lines roughly proportional to the major sects present in a specific district. However, all registered voters cast ballots for all seats in their district - not just those corresponding to their own sect. Deputies are thus elected to represent their district as well as their confessional group.
In each election, leading politicians assemble lists for every district they (or their party) are contesting. Lists are formed through electoral alliances, which do not necessarily correspond to political alliances. When a voter shows up at the polling station, he or she may either pick and choose individual candidates, or select one of the competing lists. Under the latter method, he or she may still cross out any name on a list and write in the name of a candidate from a rival list (or an independent). Because of this practice, lists with the support of popular parties often sweep most of the seats in a given district.
Elections in Lebanon are organised and supervised by the Ministry of the Interior. Elections must be announced by the Minister of the Interior in a formal decree, which can be declared no later than 30 days prior to the start of the elections. Lebanese elections are usually held in stages, with each governorate voting separately over several weeks.
The most recent parliamentary elections were held over 4 successive Sundays, beginning in Beirut on 31 May 2005, then moving to South Lebanon and Nabatiyeh on 5 June, followed by Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa on 12 June, and finishing in North Lebanon on 19 June.
Electoral Law
Electoral law was a major issue in the 2005 parliamentary elections. The current law was passed in May 2000 at the height of the Syrian presence, and many Lebanese reject it as unfair, biased against anti-Syrian candidates, Christians and minorities.
Despite widespread opposition to the existing law, the rapid changes in the status quo in Lebanon over the winter and spring of 2005 left insufficient time to draft new legislation and still hold the elections on schedule.
Christians have been some of the most outspoken opponents of the 2000 law, with a minority even opting to boycott the elections. However, many prominent Muslim leaders and members of the third sector have also deemed it unfair. Their objections are primarily based on the way in which the law drew up electoral districts.
Administratively, Lebanon is divided into 6 governorates - Beirut, South Lebanon, Nabatiyeh, Mount Lebanon, Beqaa, and North Lebanon - which are further divided into 25 small districts known as “cazas” (26 including Beirut, which is not subdivided).
Although elections are held on the basis of governorate, under the 2000 law voters cast ballots for smaller, “gerrymandered” electoral districts composed of several cazas; Beirut was divided into 3 districts. Seats were allocated by caza, but since candidates win by majority vote, under the 2000 law a popular candidate for 1 caza’s seat could nonetheless lose if he or she was less well-liked by voters in the other cazas included in the somewhat arbitrary “district.”
Many Lebanese say the 2000 electoral law was specifically designed to isolate certain constituencies and keep their candidates from office. Certainly, many divisions in all 6 governorates were geographically and traditionally counter-intuitive, sometimes even linking non-contiguous areas, and varying tremendously in size.
Although a general consensus exists in Lebanon that a new electoral law is needed, there is considerable dissention over how districts should be delineated. In particular, a major debate continues to rage between those who support using the caza as electoral district, and those who advocate the use of the governorate.
Results
Complete election results, 2005 Parliamentary elections
After the events of February, March and April 2005 in Lebanon, there was widespread fear that the elections scheduled for May of that year would have to be postponed.
However, the Syrian withdrawal had made it possible to conduct elections free of foreign interference for the first time since the end of the civil war, and both the Lebanese and the international community were eager to see a more representative parliament in place.
Elections were carried out using the much-maligned 2000 electoral law. Because of this, some still question the legitimacy of the current (2005-2009) parliament as well.
Despite the law in place, the 2005 parliamentary elections resulted in the first National Assembly with an anti-Syrian majority since the end of the war. However, it is worth noting that this change was due not only to the inclusion of new deputies and parties, but also to an ideological shift away from Syria among incumbent parliamentarians, particularly those from the Future Movement and Progressive Socialist Party.
Three major alliances dominated the elections: the Martyr Rafiq Hariri List, led by Hariri’s son Saad, secured 72 seats out of 128 in the legislature. This included 36 for Hariri’s own Future Movement - by far the largest number of seats won by any individual party. Hariri’s list included a number of other parties and several independents, but it was dominated by the “March 14 alliance” of the Progressive Socialist Party, the Lebanese Forces, and the Qornet Shehwan Gathering.
The Resistance and Development Bloc - an alliance composed of Hezballah, Amal, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and independents - won the second-largest number of seats with 35 deputies elected. In several districts, this bloc shared a list with the Martyr Rafiq Hariri contingent. Although these alliances were for electoral expediency more than any ideological affinity, they nonetheless created some interesting dynamics with, for example, the far-right Christian Lebanese Forces and Hezballah urging their supporters to vote for one another.
The third successful list was led by General Michel Aoun, a longtime opponent of the Syrian presence in Lebanon, who had only returned from exile weeks before the start of the elections. Unable to strike an alliance with his fellow anti-Syrians in the “March 14” forces, Aoun shocked the nation by drafting an electoral list that grouped his Free Patriotic Movement with pro-Syrian politicians. Despite this controversial decision, Aoun scored a major victory over the March 14 list in the Mount Lebanon province. Altogether, candidates from the Aoun-led list secured 21 seats.
International Observers
In 2005, for the first time, the Lebanese government permitted international observers to monitor the parliamentary elections. Observers included UN Special Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, US Senator Joseph Biden, and a 100-member EU-sponsored team of short- and long-term observers.
The observers joined with the international community in deeming the elections free, fair and well-managed, but raised concerns over several key issues pertaining to the way in which Lebanese elections are administered.
Specifically, they called for an overhaul of the electoral framework itself, citing the failure of the current system and delineation of districts to respect the principle of the equality of votes.
They also criticised the lack of adequate campaign finance regulation and legislation concerning the media’s role in elections, charging that these shortcomings “contributed to an uneven playing field during the election campaign.”
Furthermore, observers expressed concern over the current legislation requiring people to vote in their place of registration rather than their place of residence: as it can be difficult for many voters to arrange travel to polling stations on election day, many candidates offer transport (and other incentives) to voters in return for their support, fueling the already-endemic system of political patronage in Lebanon. These concerns have been echoed by local NGOs in Lebanon.