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Further Reading

Lebanon - Politics

Thousands of angry supporters of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri took to the streets Tuesday 25 January 2011 in several cities, where they shouted their loyalty to the former leader. Some protesters said they would not allow Lebanon to go down "an Iranian path," a reference to Tehran's support for Hezbollah. Earlier Tuesday, demonstrators who gathered in support of Mr. Hariri attacked a truck belonging to the Al Jazeera news channel and set it on fire. Protesters also burned pictures of Mr. Mikati. Elsewhere, protesters burned tires and waved flags. Tensions are high in Lebanon because of a U.N.-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, the father of the outgoing prime minister. Media reports have indicated the tribunal would indict Hezbollah members, but the group denies having had a role in the attack.

Lebanon has a unique system of government that shares power among the country's religious sects. The political system is based on confessional affiliation, and parliamentary seats are allotted on a sectarian basis. There were four major, and numerous smaller, political parties. The larger, sectarian-based parties maintained the greatest influence in the country's political system, although a number of smaller parties existed or were in the process of forming. The cabinet must license all political parties. The government scrutinized requests to establish political movements or parties and monitored their activities to some extent.

The constitution of the country was amended in 1991, under a plan for national reconciliation called the Ta'if Accord. The accord established a new political order in which Muslims and Christians share legislative power through a unicameral National Assembly. Hizbollah, once a ragtag militia, is currently one of the most powerful parties in the National Assembly, occupying 12 of the National Assembly's 128 seats. It is a Shiite Muslim organization led by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah with 20,000 active members. Founded in 1982, Hezbollah has twin objectives -- the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state in Lebanon. The party runs hospitals, television stations and newspapers and is widely supported by the Lebanese. The Lebanese government regards Hizballah's mission as a legal resistance against Israel and allows it to operate freely within the country so long as the organization adheres to the law.

Lebanese political institutions often play a secondary role to highly confessionalized personality-based politics. Powerful families also still play an independent role in mobilizing votes for both local and parliamentary elections. Nonetheless, a lively panoply of domestic political parties, some even predating independence, still exists. The largest are all confessionally based. The Kataeb (Phalange), National Bloc, National Liberal Party, Lebanese Forces, and Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) are overwhelmingly Christian parties. Amal and Hizballah are the main rivals for the organized Shi'a vote, and the PSP (Progressive Socialist Party) is the leading Druze party. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, an anti-Syrian coalition ("March 14") emerged, led by Sa'ad Hariri's predominantly Sunni Future Movement and allied with Druze leader Jumblatt, the Qornet Shehwan coalition of center-right Christian politicians, Samir Geagea's mostly Maronite Lebanese Forces, and Elias Attallah's Democratic Left secular movement. In addition to domestic parties, there are branches of pan-Arab secular parties (Ba'ath, socialist and communist parties) that were active in the 1960s and throughout the period of civil war.

There are differences both between and among Muslim and Christian parties regarding the role of religion in state affairs. There is a very high degree of political activism among religious leaders across the sectarian spectrum. The interplay for position and power among the religious, political, and party leaders and groups produces a political tapestry of extraordinary complexity.

In the past, the system worked to produce a viable democracy. The civil war resulted in greater segregation across the confessional spectrum. Whether in political parties, places of residence, schools, media outlets, even workplaces, there is a lack of regular interaction across sectarian lines to facilitate the exchange of views and promote understanding.

Some Christians favor political and administrative decentralization of the government, with separate Muslim and Christian sectors operating within the framework of a confederation. Muslims, for the most part, prefer a unified, central government with an enhanced share of power commensurate with their larger share of the population. The trajectory of the Ta'if Agreement points towards a non-confessional system, but there has been no real movement in this direction in the decade and a half since Ta'if, though in the past few years, there have been murmurings to change the agreement.

Palestinian refugees, predominantly Sunni Muslims, who numbered 425,640 in 2010 according to UNRWA, are not active on the domestic political scene as they do not have the right to vote or even to reside in Lebanon. Nonetheless, they constitute an important minority whose naturalization/settlement in Lebanon is vigorously opposed by most Lebanese, who see them as a threat to Lebanon's delicate confessional balance. In 2002, parliament enacted legislation banning Palestinians from owning property in Lebanon. The Labor Ministry opened up professions previously closed to Palestinians in August 2010, but they are still barred from professions requiring associations membership, including law, medicine and engineering. The number of Iraqi refugees is approximately 50,000 and is believed to have stabilized as of 2008.

A September 2004 vote by the Chamber of Deputies to amend the constitution to extend President Lahoud's term in office by 3 years amplified the question of Lebanese sovereignty and the continuing Syrian presence. The vote was clearly taken under Syrian pressure, exercised in part through Syria's military intelligence service, whose chief in Lebanon had acted as a virtual proconsul for many years. Emile Lahoud, who was granted another term by the Lebanese parliment in September 2004 under great pressure from Syria. Though Lahoud was President and exercised considerable influence due to the backing of Syria, he was not the official commander-in-chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces. The UN Security Council expressed its concern over the situation by passing Resolution 1559, also in September 2004, which called for withdrawal of all remaining foreign forces from Lebanon, disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces throughout the country, and a free and fair electoral process in the presidential election.

Former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 19 others were assassinated in Beirut by a car bomb on February 14, 2005. The assassination spurred massive protests in Beirut and international pressure that led to the withdrawal of the remaining Syrian military troops from Lebanon on April 26. In the months that followed Hariri's assassination, journalist Samir Qassir and Lebanese politician George Hawi were both murdered by car bombs, and most recently, Defense Minister Elias Murr narrowly avoided a similar fate when a car bomb exploded near his convoy. The UN International Independent Investigative Commission (UNIIIC) headed by Detlev Mehlis iinvestigated Hariri's assassination and reported its findings to the Security Council.

Parliamentary elections were held May 29-June 19, 2005 and the anti-Syrian opposition led by Sa'ad Hariri, Rafiq Hariri's son, won a majority of 72 seats (out of 128). Hariri ally and former Finance Minister Fouad Siniora was named Prime Minister and Nabih Berri was reelected as Speaker of Parliament. Parliament approved the first "made-in-Lebanon" cabinet in almost 30 years on July 30. The new cabinet's ministerial statement, a summary of the new government's agenda and priorities, focuses on political and economic reform.

After a cabinet walkout by Shi'a ministers over the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in November 2006, Lebanon's political deadlock came to a head in 2007 when Lebanese politicians were unable to agree on a successor to President Emile Lahoud. Hizballah's takeover of west Beirut in May 2008 and resulting outbreak of violence led Lebanese leaders, with Arab League mediation, to draft the Doha Agreement. The Doha Agreement paved the way for the election of a consensus candidate--LAF Commander Michel Sleiman--in May 2008 and the formation of a new unity government.

Michel Sleiman, a Maronite, was elected president in May, 2008. General Michel Sleiman was previously the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. He has been in the Army since 1976 and slowly climbed up the chain of command finally being appointed as commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces in 1998.

Parliamentary elections were held on June 7, 2009, under the new electoral law mandated by the 2008 Doha Agreement. While the new electoral law maintained the Taif Agreement's division of parliamentary seats equally between Christians and Muslims, it also divided Lebanon into 26 electoral districts and mandated that elections be held on a single day, rather than consecutive weekends. Observers concluded the elections were generally free and fair, with minor irregularities. In its final report, a EU observer team stated there were no major irregularities; that the elections benefited from legal improvements introduced in September 2008, such as an independent election commission, abolition of the voter card and multiday elections, and regulation of campaign finance and media; and voter turnout was higher than in previous elections, at almost 52 percent compared to 43 to 45 percent in 2005. The September 2008 electoral law also established out-of-country voting provisions for the 2013 parliamentary elections.

In its annual National Integrity System Study, the Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA) reported during the 2009 parliamentary elections LTA monitors witnessed vote buying through cash donations on election day in many electoral districts. LTA issued a press statement the day after the elections stating acts of vote-buying occurred in Metn, Zahle, Batroun, Zghorta, West Bekaa, and Saida. The report indicated the value of a vote reached from 90,000 pounds ($60) to 150,000 pounds ($100) in Saida, 1,300,000 pounds ($800) in Zahle, and up to 4,500,000 pounds ($3,000) in Zgharta. On June 9, OTV broadcast a recording of a conversation between MP Michel Murr and Father Elias Akkary in which Murr asked Akkary to retrieve the preprinted ballots he had distributed on behalf of Murr's opponent or else face the secret services. Akkary had reportedly agreed to campaign for Murr but instead campaigned for Murr's opponent, MP Ibrahim Kenaan.

Sa'ad Hariri's coalition secured a parliamentary majority in the 2009 elections. The new national unity cabinet headed by Prime Minster Hariri received parliament's vote of confidence on December 10, 2009, after six months of extensive negotiations between the majority and the opposition. As in 2005 and 2008, the new cabinet's ministerial statement focused on political and economic reform, but also endorsed Hizballah's role, along with that of the Lebanese people and army, in confronting Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory. A number of recent security incidents in south Lebanon highlight the continuing threat to Lebanon's stability and security posed by Hizballah's arms and the need for full implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1559, 1680, and 1701, including the disarmament of all militias, the delineation of the Lebanon-Syria border, and enforcement of the weapons-free zone.

By January 2011 Lebanon's two major political coalitions, March 8 and March 14, are deadlocked over the issue of The Special Tribunal for Lebanon. March 14, which is the ruling party of Sa'ad Hariri, supports the court. March 8, the opposition coalition that includes Hezbollah, does not. Hezbollah, a Shi'ite political party and militia backed by Iran and Syria, says the court's goal is to discredit the organization, not to find the killers. Both sides say they will only accept a new government that agrees with them on this issue. March 14 says Sa'ad Hariri is the only man for prime minister. March 8 says he is not.

Sa'ad Hariri's Western-backed government fell Wednesday 12 January 2011 when 11 ministers, most from Hezbollah, resigned. outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he would not participate in any new government led by a Hezbollah-backed candidate. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah secured enough votes to nominate its candidate for prime minister, giving the opposition control of the next Lebanese government. Walid Jumblatt, leader of Lebanon's 200,000 Druze, once strongly supported the Tribunal, but in early 2011 swung his support behind Syria and Hezbollah. General Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Maronite Christian, was now also allied with Hezbollah. He was prime minister and president during the civil war. Jumblatt's seven votes added to the opposition's 57 seats in parliament, plus Mikati's vote, gives them the 65 deputies needed to tip the nomination to their candidate, a billionaire businessman who represents the northern city of Tripoli.

Lebanon's president appointed Hezbollah-backed candidate Najib Mikati prime minister-designate on Tuesday 25 January 2011, as protests raged in several cities. Mikati told reporters he told the president that in this time of political crisis there must be an effort to save the country and he called for unity. Mikati said he will seek diverse political interests as he helps direct the formation of the government. He urged all of the country's political parties to take part in the new government, saying his appointment did not signal a victory of one camp over another.