Early results: Hizbullah, allies suffer some election losses
Hizbullah and its allies appear to have suffered some losses in this weekend's parliamentary elections, with their opponents gaining more seats and some of their traditional partners not making it into the legislature, early results showed Monday.
Despite the apparent setback, Hizbullah and its main Shiite ally, the Amal group of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, are likely to retain the 27 seats allocated to the sect. It was not clear, however, whether the Iran-backed group and its allies would hang on to the majority they have held since 2018, when they had 71 of the 128 seats in parliament.
Meanwhile, independents, including those from the 2019 protest movement, scooped up at least 10 seats, a major achievement considering they went into the vote fragmented and facing intimidation and threats by entrenched mainstream parties. Their showing sends a strong message to ruling class politicians who have held on to their seats despite a devastating economic collapse that has plunged the majority of the country into poverty.
The mixed bag ensures a sharply polarized parliament with lawmakers who will likely find it difficult to work together to pass the laws needed to begin the financial recovery and support a government with enormous challenges that lie ahead.
With votes still being counted, unofficial results showed Hizbullah’s Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, losing ground to its traditional Christian rivals, the rightwing Lebanese Forces headed by Samir Geagea.
The Saudi-backed Christian Lebanese Forces party, which has been among the most vocal critics of Hizbullah, says it won at least 20 seats, adding five members from the 2018 vote. This would make it the largest Christian bloc in parliament, replacing the Free Patriotic Movement that was founded by President Michel Aoun and has been a Hizbullah ally since 2006.
According to early results announced by each of the groups, independents were able to remove several longtime politicians from parliament, including Hizbullah-allied Druze politician Talal Arslan who lost to independent candidate Mark Daou.
Asaad Hardan, a strong Hizbullah ally in the third district in the South reportedly lost his seat to the independent candidate Elias Jradeh.
The closely watched elections on Sunday were the first since a devastating economic crisis erupted in Lebanon in October 2019, triggering nationwide protests against the ruling class blamed for decades of corruption and mismanagement.
It was also the first election since the August 2020 Beirut port explosion that killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed parts of the Lebanese capital. The blast, widely blamed on negligence, was set off by hundreds of tons of poorly stored ammonium nitrate that ignited in a port warehouse.
Lebanon holds elections every four years and the new parliament will elect a new president after Aoun's term ends in October.
Source: Associated Press
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