Hezbollah and its allies lose the parliamentary majority in the Lebanese parliament

Hezbollah and its allies lost the majority in the new Lebanese parliament, according to the final results of the parliamentary elections announced by the Minister of the Interior today, Tuesday, which recorded the entry of independent opposition candidates emanating from the popular uprising that took place in 2019, to Parliament for the first time, in an unexpected size.

The results, which Minister of Interior Bassam Mawlawi announced today, showed that the opposition lists emanating from the protests against the political authority that Lebanon witnessed more than two years ago won at least 13 seats in the new parliament.

And 12 of the winners are new faces and have never held any political positions. They were active during the unprecedented “revolution” that began in October 2019 and lasted for months, by organizing protests and demonstrations, appearing in the media and campaigning on social media and among the people.

Among them are university professors and environmental activists, and they were distinguished by their style that is completely different from the traditional style of political parties and forces that have dominated the political scene in Lebanon for decades.

The results showed that Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement, led by the outgoing Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, retained all the seats allocated to the Shiite sect (27 seats) in the country, but their allies, including the Free Patriotic Movement led by President Michel Aoun and the deputy head of the Syrian National Party, lost seats in constituencies. several.

Hezbollah was the most influential political force in the country, especially as it is the only unofficial party that possesses an arsenal of weapons, controlling seventy of the 128 seats in the outgoing parliament.

Perhaps the most severe blow to which he was subjected lies in the violation of his bylaws by two candidates, one Orthodox and the other Druze, in the southern border region, which is one of his strongholds, something that has not happened since 1992.

It is not yet clear the final number of seats he will combine with his allies, but he will definitely not be able to reach 65 seats.

It is also not known what will be the political positioning of the new opponents, many of whom follow a discourse calling for the unification of arms in the hands of the legitimate forces, but they all focus especially on developing the Lebanese system, reforming the judiciary, modernizing the country, and building institutions away from favoritism and the sectarian quota system.

Consequently, they may ally themselves with other deputies from the traditional parties that have supported the "revolution" to some extent, and have a likely say in Parliament.

On the other hand, the Lebanese Forces party, Hezbollah's opponent, managed to increase the number of its seats with its allies (from 15 to 19).

The elections are the first after an economic collapse that the World Bank has ranked among the worst in the world since 1850, and after a horrific explosion on August 4, 2020 in the port of Beirut that killed more than two hundred people and destroyed neighborhoods in the capital and resulted in the storage of huge quantities of dangerous materials without preventive measures. .

Ziad Majed, a professor of political science at the American University in Paris, believes that the economic situation may play in the interest of the new parliamentarians, who will be able for the first time to exert pressure from within parliament.

"This will create political and popular pressure on the forces of change and reformers to cooperate," he says.

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