Middle East

Lebanon votes in first general election in nine years

Another coalition government of most parties that have ruled since 2016 is likely

A man casts his vote at a polling station in Sidon, Lebanon. Photograph: REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

Sun May 6 2018 - 07:33

Lebanese began voting on Sunday in their first general election for nine years.

The poll is seen as unlikely to upend the country’s basic contours of power but is important for economic stability.

Lebanon has mostly weathered the regional storm caused by seven years of war in neighbouring Syria that has drawn in regional powers and unleashed a wave of refugees, but it has gone through several internal crises since the last election.

Television broadcasts showed voters queuing at polling stations across the tiny Mediterranean country to cast their ballots under new voting rules that still preserve the country’s sectarian power-sharing system.

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Voting is scheduled to last from 7am until 7pm, with unofficial results expected to start coming in overnight and a formal tally announced in the coming days.

Election law makes it illegal to publish forecasts of how the parties will perform.

Whatever the result, another coalition government including most of the major parties, like that which has governed since 2016, is likely to be formed after the election, analysts have said.

Analysts are closely watching the performance of Sunni Muslim prime minister Saad al-Hariri’s Future Movement party and that of the Iran-backed, ShiaHizbullah group and its allies.

The country has periodically been an arena for the intense regional competition between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

However, in this election, Riyadh has pulled back from its previous support for Mr Hariri, backing that helped Future in 2009.

Getting a new government in place quickly would reassure investors of Lebanon’s economic stability after donors pledged $11 billion in soft loans for a capital investment programme last month, in return for fiscal and other reforms. Lebanon has one of the world’s highest debt-to-GDP ratios and the International Monetary Fund has warned its fiscal trajectory is unsustainable.

Despite some acts of violence and intimidation connected to the election in recent weeks, no major incidents were reported in the immediate run-up to voting.

However, there was a security presence in Beirut on Sunday and a Reuters witness saw a long military column of armoured vehicles and other troop carriers driving slowly into the capital. Security forces stood sentry on street corners and near the polling booths.

Observers from the European Union and other international bodies are monitoring the poll. – Reuters

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