Hezbollah and Amal in show of force in Beirut despite election losses
▶ Experts predict political stalemate as no single bloc is expected to secure a majority in the 128-seat parliament
Supporters of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, Lebanon’s two main Shiite political parties, paraded through the centre of Beirut in a show of force after the country’s election results were announced.
Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies have lost their majority in the parliament. The Shiite militant group, considered a terrorist organisation in several western countries, won 59 seats with its allies in Sunday’s vote.
Before the parade yesterday, rounds of live fire were heard in the capital during a speech by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
The shooting came from the direction of the Khandak El Ghamiq neighbourhood, a stronghold of Mr Berri’s Amal party.
Dozens of cars and scooters drove through central Beirut, horns blaring as occupants waved Hezbollah and Amal flags shortly after Mr Berri’s speech ended.
Supporters chanted “with our soul, with our blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, oh Nabih”.
Mr Berri, who was re-elected on Sunday and has been in Parliament since 1992, called for a “serious dialogue”. “Let all the hot heads calm down. We are destined to live together,” he said.
Hezbollah MP Muhammad Raad told political rivals on Monday evening that they should not “fuel a civil war”.
Hezbollah was the only militia involved in Lebanon’s 1975-1990 conflict that was allowed to keep a hold of its weapons, in the name of its fight against Israel.
Despite setbacks for their parliamentary allies, Hezbollah and Amal retained the 27 seats allocated to the Shiite sect.
Saudi ambassador Waleed Al Bukhari tweeted that the result “proves the inevitability that the logic of the state will win against the absurd excesses of the statelet disrupting political life and stability in Lebanon”.
Election turnout was only 41 per cent. The EU said there had been “vote-buying and clientelism”.
Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies have lost their majority in Lebanon’s parliament, final results from the country’s elections revealed.
However, the EU described the contest as having been overshadowed by “vote-buying and clientelism”.
Hezbollah and its allies won 59 seats in the 128-member parliament – down from their majority of 71 in 2018’s elections. The results indicate that no single political bloc will have control, with analysts warning of a likely deadlock.
The Lebanese Forces, a strong critic of Iran’s influence in Lebanon, now appear to be the largest Christian party in parliament, overtaking the Hezbollah-aligned Free Patriotic Movement, which was founded by President Michel Aoun.
Opposition candidates won at least 13 seats in the elections, with 12 of them entering parliament for the first time. Many of those candidates were closely linked to the anti-corruption protests of 2019.
The weekend’s election is the first to be held since the 2019 economic collapse, nationwide protests against Lebanon’s ruling classes, and the 2020 Beirut port explosion that killed more than 200 people.
Hezbollah and its main Shiite ally, the Amal Movement of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, retained the 27 seats allocated to Lebanon’s Shiites.
Yesterday evening, celebratory gunfire could be heard from Khandaq Al Ghamiq, an
I don’t believe we are going to have a prime minister in the immediate future, not even in the next few months
PROF HILAL KHASHAN American University of Beirut
Amal-dominated area of Beirut, as Mr Berri gave a speech.
But other political allies lost out, including deputy parliament speaker Elie Ferzli, longtime Druze politician Talal Arslan, and Faisal Karami, a Sunni representative
“We have to keep in mind that even though Hezbollah and its allies lost the arithmetic parliamentary majority, this does not mean that the opposite camp will be able to rule Lebanon without taking into account Hezbollah’s concerns,” Karim Bitar, a professor at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, told The National.
The final results included a record of eight women MPs.
Nonetheless, Prof Bitar said, the results marked “a relative and symbolic defeat for Hezbollah”, pointing to opposition victories in the movement’s southern heartlands.
Elias Jradeh and Firas Hamdan won seats that Hezbollah and its political allies held for three decades.
“With the lack of a majority bloc in parliament, Hezbollah will not necessarily accept being marginalised. It could lead to a deadlock in parliament,” Prof Bitar said.
“It makes it necessary to find consensual figures who could be potential prime ministers or potential presidents. Both sides of the political spectrum will have to make compromises. None of them can rule Lebanon on its own.”
The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90 per cent of its value since the economic collapse. It hit 30,000 pounds to the US dollar yesterday. This is about a 10 per cent loss since Sunday’s elections.
“I do not really expect things to get any better. In fact, things will get worse,” Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, told The National.
He said the weakening of the Lebanese pound as the election results became clearer “is an indicator of the direction of the situation in Lebanon”.
“I do not expect the new parliament to be able to co-operate. I don’t believe we are going to have a prime minister in the immediate future, not even in the next few months,” he said.
With the parliamentary majority of Hezbollah and its allies gone, Prof Khashan warned “it doesn’t mean the anti-Hezbollah forces are of one persuasion. They may not be able to come together and form a coalition.”
Jarek Domanski, the deputy chief observer for the EU’s observation mission, said that “vote-buying and clientelism … did affect, did distort the electoral process and did affect the free voters’ choice”.