Legislative in Lebanon: will the independent candidates achieve a significant breakthrough?
Election officials prepare election materials, on the eve of legislative elections, in Beirut, Lebanon, May 14, 2022. REUTERS - MOHAMED AZAKIR
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The Lebanese are preparing to vote this Sunday, May 15 to designate the 128 deputies of the Parliament of Beirut in a country in full economic collapse: 80% of the population now lives below the poverty line;
the currency has lost 90% of its value;
the daily life of the Lebanese is punctuated by power cuts and many choose to take the path of exile to seek work abroad.
In this context, independent candidates are running against the powerful sectarian parties that have shared power for decades.
Advertisement
Read more
With our special correspondent in Beirut
,
Nicolas Falez
Will the candidates on the independent lists achieve a significant breakthrough?
This is one of the main issues of this election.
In each of Lebanon's 15 constituencies, one or more lists call for “change” and oppose the major traditional parties.
Most refer to the protest movement that erupted in 2019 to challenge the political class and the denominational system.
►
To read also Legislative in Lebanon: last hours of campaign in Mount Lebanon
We feel in recent days a certain optimism in the ranks of these new formations.
Optimism fueled by the vote of expatriates last week.
The results of these votes are not yet known in detail, but several sources told us that the large turnout was a good signal for all those who want to challenge the major Lebanese parties.
A success of these independent lists would allow them to form a parliamentary bloc, but we already know that the majority of the 128 seats in the Beirut Parliament will go to the traditional parties such as the Shiite Hezbollah and its allies, or the Christian parties, very divided between them.
►
To read also The anger of the Lebanese in the face of an economic crisis which drags on on the eve of the legislative elections
One unknown, however: the vote of Sunni Muslims since the main political figure of this camp, former Prime Minister
Saad Hariri and his party
have given up on embarking on this battle for the legislative elections.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Lebanon