- Mexico excludes Spanish king from president's swearing-in
- Meta bets big on celebrity AI voices and augmented reality glasses
- Bus hijacking leaves one dead in Los Angeles
- UN chief raises alarm over Sudan 'escalation' to army leader
- Ecuador firefighters battle blazes choking capital
- CONCACAF chooses West Coast venues for Gold Cup
- Ohtani 50-50 home run ball up for auction
- Trump accuses Zelensky of refusing to strike a deal on war
- Putin proposes broader criteria for using nuclear arms
- Zelensky alleges Russian plot on nuclear plants in defiant UN address
- France's Ubisoft pushes back new 'Assassin's Creed' game to February
- Paris fashion: The Dries dream lives on without Van Noten
- Meta unveils star-studded AI assistants
- DRC leader calls for sanctions on Rwanda over rebel support
- Mud, loss and despair after Polish floods
- England skipper Stokes on track for Pakistan tour
- UN chief warns of 'rising tide of misery' from swelling seas
- Israeli troops on alert to go into Lebanon
- Russian strikes on eastern Ukraine city kill two, wound 19
- Workers 'disappointed' as Volkswagen remains vague on turnaround plan
- Biden warns 'all-out war' possible in Middle East
- Ex-Real Madrid defender and World Cup winner Varane retires
- Nuking a huge asteroid could save Earth, lab experiment suggests
- Six hurt in Ecuador as firefighters battle blazes choking capital
- Florida girds for arrival of Helene as powerful hurricane
- German prosecutors charge three in Schumacher blackmail case
- Restoring nature, 'adaptation' helped limit Storm Boris impact
- Son says Spurs team-mate Bentancur 'almost cried' over alleged racial slur
- French minister vows to 'protect the French' after student rape and murder
- Harris and Trump target economy in close US election battle
- Zelensky alleges Russia plot on nuclear plants in defiant UN address
- 'Worst crisis': German Greens leaders quit after election losses
- Israel puts troops on alert for entry into Lebanon
- 'The UN has betrayed us': Israeli ambassador
- US new home sales slow slightly in August
- UN chief says sea level rise threatens 'rising tide of misery'
- Global stocks mixed after fresh China stimulus
- US-China progress sparks hope for COP29, says Azerbaijan
- Zelensky says Russia planning attacks on Ukraine nuclear plants
- Film legend Bardot, nearing 90, enjoys her 'silent solitude'
- Walking on the Moon in Cologne: Europe's lunar life simulator
- Google files EU complaint over Microsoft cloud services
- Finnish zoo to return pandas to China early
- At last! China's Zhang Shuai ends 24-match losing streak
- Global stocks trade mixed tracking China stimulus
- EU backs plan to downgrade wolf protection status
- Jacks says new-look England need time to master ODIs
- Madrid's Mbappe suffers thigh injury before Atletico derby
- Russian MPs back adoption ban on countries allowing gender reassignment
- France minister vows new immigration 'rules' after student murder
CMSC | -0.04% | 25.09 | $ | |
JRI | -0.22% | 13.39 | $ | |
NGG | -0.01% | 70.1 | $ | |
BCC | -2.69% | 138.07 | $ | |
GSK | -1.04% | 40.56 | $ | |
BTI | -0.37% | 37.96 | $ | |
SCS | -1.86% | 12.88 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0% | 7.07 | $ | |
RIO | 0.37% | 67.67 | $ | |
RBGPF | -1.04% | 59.48 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.22% | 25.065 | $ | |
BCE | -0.66% | 34.9 | $ | |
BP | -3.63% | 31.68 | $ | |
RELX | -0.33% | 48.37 | $ | |
VOD | -0.3% | 10.06 | $ | |
AZN | 0.86% | 77.54 | $ |
Lebanon awaits results of first vote since multiple crises
The results of Lebanon's first elections since multiple crises ravaged the country were expected Monday, with opposition groups hoping for modest but unprecedented gains.
According to provisional turnout figures, 41 percent of Lebanon's 3.9 million registered voters cast a ballot Sunday in 12 hours of polling that saw several irregularities and minor incidents.
A new generation of independent candidates hopes to kindle the kind of change that a 2019 protest movement failed to deliver, and looked likely to do better than the single assembly seat they clinched last time.
But most of parliament's 128 seats are expected to remain in the grip of the entrenched groups blamed for the country's woes -- chiefly the economic downturn that plunged most of Lebanon into poverty.
For many voters, the election was a chance to vent their anger at the hereditary ruling elite that an October 2019 uprising, the country's financial default and a cataclysmic 2020 explosion in the heart of the capital failed to remove.
"These elections are first and foremost a means of rooting out this political class and getting back our Lebanon," said Shadi, a 38-year-old whose flat was destroyed in the Beirut blast, declining to give his second name.
Like many others who posted pictures on social media Sunday, he chose to dip his middle figure in the bottle of electoral blue ink after casting his ballot.
- Status quo -
Lebanon shares power among its religious communities, and politics is often treated as a family business. By convention, the president is a Maronite Christian, the premier a Sunni Muslim, and the parliamentary speaker a Shiite.
The outgoing parliament was dominated by the Shiite movement Hezbollah and its two main allies, the Shiite Amal party of Speaker Nabih Berri, who has held the job since 1992, and President Michel Aoun's Christian Free Patriotic Movement.
Preliminary results from the Sunday election indicate that traditional parties will prevail.
But despite limited resources, opposition groups seemed optimistic about their results. Several breakthroughs were reported, especially in a district in south Lebanon, a stronghold for Hezbollah and its allies.
"It seems almost impossible to imagine Lebanon voting for more of the same," said Sam Heller, an analyst with the Century Foundation. "And yet, that appears to be the likeliest outcome."
One of the most notable changes in the electoral landscape is the absence of former prime minister Saad Hariri, which leaves parts of the Sunni vote up for grabs by new players.
Supporters of Hariri skipped elections and, in Beirut, some set up inflatable swimming pools to show their boycott of the vote.
Scuffles broke out in a handful of locations during voting and party supporters were seen shepherding people to polling stations, a recurring practice amid widespread vote-buying.
In a bankrupt country which can only supply two daily hours of mains electricity to its inhabitants, one of the main challenges facing the interior ministry was powering polling centres.
Despite government assurances, several outages were reported and in some polling stations, voters had to use the flashlights on their mobile phones to find the slot in the ballot box.
"We want to build a country even if it will take time."
F.Müller--BTB