Hezbollah and its allies gain in Lebanon vote
beirut — Hezbollah and its political allies won just over half the seats in Lebanon’s parliamentary election, unofficial results showed, underlining Tehran’s growing regional clout.
Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri said his Sunni-dominated political movement had lost a third of its seats in parliament following the country’s first general election in nine years.
Al Hariri said the results credit his Future Movement with 21 of parliament’s 128 seats, a drop from the 33 it controlled in the outgoing legislature.
He blamed a complex new law that redrew constituency boundaries and changed the electoral system from winner-takes-all to a proportional one, and gaps in his party’s performance.
An Israeli minister said the outcome showed the Lebanese state was indistinguishable from Hezbollah. —
beirut — The Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its political allies scored significant gains in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Lebanon while the Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement sustained losses, according to preliminary and unofficial results published in Lebanese media on Monday.
The results, which are more or less expected to match the official count, show that Hariri has so far lost five seats in Beirut, once considered his party’s stronghold.
If confirmed, the results would be yet another boost for Iran’s allies in Lebanon and neighbouring Syria, where Tehran has seen its strength steadily grow over the past few years.
The unofficial results also indicate Sunni voters are losing faith in Hariri’s party amid a declining Saudi role in Lebanon, a deteriorating economy and general exasperation over the civil war in Syria, which has brought 1 million refugees to Lebanon. Hariri would still have the largest bloc in parliament, facilitating his return as prime minister to form the next government despite the losses.
Official results are expected to be announced by Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk later on Monday, although no time has been set. Both Hariri and the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, were expected to speak later in the day.
The next Lebanon government, like the outgoing one, will likely be a unity government that incorporates Hariri’s opponents from the Hezbollah group. Hezbollah and its allies appear set to take at least 47 seats in the 128-seat parliament, which would enable them to veto any laws the militant group opposes. The group, according to the unofficial results, added one seat and now has a bloc of 13 in parliament, known as “Loyalty to the Resistance” bloc. Pro-Syrian politicians made their strongest comeback since Damascus ended a nearly three-decade military presence in 2005.
Hardcore Syrian allies that were elected on Sunday include former security chief Jamil Sayyed, former deputy parliament speaker Elie Firzly and former Defense Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad. The Hezbollah group is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, while the European Union lists Hezbollah’s military wing as terrorist, differentiating between its military and political activities. Hezbollah has sent thousands of its fighters to Syria to shore up President Bashar Assad’s forces. That, and its intervention in Iraq and Yemen, has led several Gulf states to also name it as a terrorist group. The election, the first to be held in nine years, was marked by a lower turnout than before, reflecting voter frustration over endemic corruption and a stagnant economy. Machnouk put national turnout at 49 per cent, compared to 54 per cent in 2009. In Beirut precincts, the turnout was between 32 per cent and 42 per cent. The drop came despite a reformulated electoral law designed to encourage voting through proportional representation. But many, including Machnouk, blamed the new, complex law which redrew constituency districts for the tepid turnout particularly in Beirut.
The preliminary results show at least one candidate from a civil society list — journalist Paula Yaacoubian — won a seat in the capital Beirut, an area traditionally monopolised by established political parties. The two largest blocs in the outgoing parliament, those of President Michel Aoun and Hariri, lost some of their seats but they still have the largest Christian and Sunni bloc. Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement now has 21 seats, six less than what they had, while Hariri’s Future Movement now holds 20 seats, a sharp drop from the 32 seats they won in 2009.
Some of Hariri’s Sunni supporters saw him as being too soft on Hezbollah, and the billionaire businessman also faced criticism after sacking dozens of employees from his companies in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, largely due to Saudi spending cuts. “Clearly, the Future Movement no longer monopolises the Sunni votes,” said political analyst Ibrahim Bayram. He said that while Hariri is still likely to form the next government, he is now weaker and new conditions are likely to be imposed on him.
The biggest winner so far is the right-wing Christian Lebanese Forces that almost doubled its number of seats to 15. The group has been aggressively working on marketing itself as a main force against widespread corruption in the country that has been endangering the economy. —