Hizbollah set to seal dominance in Lebanon
BEIRUT: Hizbollah was poised to seal its dominance of Lebanon yesterday with results for the country’s first general election in nine years expected to confirm the Iran-backed party as the main winner.
The polls were marked by a low turnout of 49.2 per cent and the emergence of a civil society movement challenging Lebanon’s oligarchs was set to clinch a pair of seats in parliament.
The number of Hizbollah members of parliament in the 128-seat parliament may not increase, but astute pre-electoral tactics have secured it enough allies to withstand political challenges on strategic issues.
It will benefit from the fragmentation of its foes, among them Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who announced yesterday his Sunni-dominated Future Movement had lost a third of its seats, with 21 of parliament’s 128 seats, a drop from the 33 it controlled in the outgoing legislature.
“Hariri’s loss will be the distinguishing mark of these elections, which will have consequences on the battle to form a new government,” the pro-Hizbollah Al-Akhbar daily wrote yesterday.
Hizbollah, which was created in the 1980s to fight against Israel and currently battles in Syria alongside regime forces, is listed as a terror organisation by the United States.
The powerful group is a key political player in Lebanon where it has allied with the Christian party of President Michel Aoun and has participated in Hariri’s government since December 2016.
Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk announced the turnout figure at a news conference shortly after midnight and appeared to blame it on the new electoral law agreed last year.
“This is a new law and voters were not familiar with it, nor were the heads of polling stations.”
As provisional estimates trickled in, some candidates’ supporters started celebrating in the streets after a polling operation marred only by a few violations.