Elections in Lebanon At the crossroad of peace and stability Martin Wählisch June 2009 • Next Parliamentary Elections in Lebanon will be held on June 7 th , 2009. • Since the last elections in 2005, the Lebanese political system has been under constant domestic and international strains. • The upcoming elections will be a challenging test for Lebanon, and a milestone in the strengthening of Lebanon’s democratic institutions. • Whether a crisis will immediately take hold after the elections is not yet definite, but given past experiences it is not completely unlikely. “When Beirut’s pitted roads are getting done, it’s election time.” This common saying can often be heard from the capital’s taxi drivers these days. With the Parliamentarian ballot votes scheduled for June 7 th , Lebanese parties have spread their campaign billboards all around the streets of the country. After years of conflict, the hope is high that Lebanon will head towards more stability and unity in the next years. Former Elections Since the last elections, which took place after the withdrawal of Syrian’s troops in 2005, the political system has been under constant domestic and international strain. In November 2007, when the term of the 11 th President of Lebanon, Emile Lahoud, ended, the country was nearly on the brink of a civil-war again. Under mediation of the Amir of Qatar, the main political groups finally reached an agreement in Doha in May 2008 forming a new cross-party government. Lebanon has been so far run by a national unity government, in which the pro-western March 14 faction has the upper hand. Its major opponent is the coalition March 8, which includes the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi’ite group Hizbollah. Parties and Candidates The race between the two rivaling blocs March 14 and March 8 is tight. With 128 seats needed to be filled, 702 candidates from 26 districts registered until the deadline at the beginning of April- the highest number of nominees ever in Lebanese history. March 14 March 14, named after the date of the Cedar Revolution against 30 years of Syrian military occupation in Lebanon, comprises a strong coalition of various parties such as the Lebanese Future Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party, Lebanese Forces, Lebanese Social Democratic Party Kataeb, the National Liberal Party, the Independence Movement, the Tripoli Bloc, the Democratic Left Movement, the Democratic Renewal Movement, the Armenian Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, the Armenian Democratic Liberal Ramgavar