Lebanese Electoral System

IFES Lebanon Briefing PaperMarch 2009

Lebanon’s 2009 Parliamentary Elections

The Lebanese Electoral System

Page 1

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The Lebanese Parliament: confessional seats

Page 2

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Lebanon’s Electoral Districts

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Beirut’s Electoral Districs

Page 3

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Distribution of parliamentary seats by confession anddistrict

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Core Elements of the Lebanese Electoral System

Page 4

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The Electoral System in practice: the example of Baabda

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Lebanese Ballot Papers and Electoral Lists: an overview

seats

Muslims 64

Sunni 27Shi’ite 27Druze 8Alawaite 2

Christians 64

Maronite 34Greek Orthodox 14Greek Catholic 8Armenian Orthodox 5Armenian Catholic 1Evangelical 1Minorities 1

The Lebanese Parliament:confessional seats

The Lebanese Parliament is aunicameral body consisting of 128directly elected Deputies. Inaccordance with the Constitution,all parliamentary seats are dividedequally between Christians andMuslims.The seats are further sub-dividedinto eleven confessional branches(four within Islam and seven withinChristianity). The distribution of the 128 seats among the elevenconfessions listed here isformalised under the 2008Election Law

Lebanon holdsparliamentary electionson Sunday 7 June 2009.This IFES Lebanonbriefing paper providesbackground materialon the electoraldistricts and theelectoral system thatwill be used, as well asoutlining some of thekey issues relating tothe electoral process,including the issues of electoral lists andballot papers.

www.ifes.org/lebanonLebanon@ifes.org+961 1 739 307

The single seat for Christian Minorities is intended to provide parliamentaryrepresentation for six recognised confessional groups. Lebanese citizens of any other religion, including two that are formally recognised by the State,are unable to be elected to Parliament.

•

the eight

qada

of NorthLebanon formed twodistricts;

•

the eight

qada

of SouthLebanon formed twodistricts;

•

the six

qada

in MountLebanon formed fourdistricts.

The 2005 Election Districts

The Lebanese Electoral SystemPage 2

IFES Lebanon Briefing PaperMarch 2009

Lebanon’s Electoral Districts

The 2008 Election Law allocates 128parliamentary seats among the 26election districts shown on the mapopposite. Political consensus on thesedistricts was a core part of the DohaAgreement in May 2008.The current 26 electoral districts arebased on the administrative boundariesof the

qada

but with some exceptions: inthree cases, two

qada

are merged intoone district (e.g. Marjeyoun-Hasbaya) andin one case, a single

qada

is divided intotwo districts (Saida and Zahrany). Theuse of individual

qada

as the basis forelectoral districts was last used inLebanon as part of an Election Lawadopted in 1960; for this reason thecurrent boundaries are often referred toas the ‘1960 districts’.The current electoral districts vary widelyin the size of their electorates: the largestdistrict, Baalbeck-Hermel has over250,000 voters while the smallest district,Bcharreh, has just under 45,000 voters.

For the 2000 and 2005 elections, Lebanon was divided into 14electoral districts that seemed based on no formal criteria:

Beirut’s 2009 Electoral Districts

The

capital’s twelve administrativeprecincts are allocated to threedifferent electoral districts.

Beirut District One

SaifeAchrafieh

Rmeil

Beirut District Two

BachouraMarfaa

Medawar

Beirut District Three

Ras Beirut

Ain El MreisseMina El HousnZoukak El BlatMoussaytbeh

Mazra

The Lebanese Electoral SystemPage 3

IFES Lebanon Briefing PaperMarch 2009

Distribution of Parliamentary Seatsamong the 26 Electoral Districts

S u n n i S h i ’ i t e D r u z e A l a w i t e M a r o n i t e G r e e k O r t h o d o x G r e e k C a t h o l i c A r m e n i a n O r t h o d o x A r m e n i a n C a t h o l i c E v a n g e l i c a l M i n o r i t i e s

T o t a l S e a t s p e r D i s t r i c t

Akkar

3

1

2

7

Minieh-Dinnieh

3

Becharre

2

Tripoli

5

1

8

Zgharta

3

Batroun

2

Koura

3

Jbeil

1

2

3

Kesrwan

5

Metn

4

2

1

8

Baabda

2

1

3

6

Aley

2

1

5

Chouf

2

3

1

8

Saida

2

Zahrani

2

1

3

Jezzine

2

1

3

Nabatieh

3

Tyr

4

Bint Jbeil

3

Marjeyoun-Hasbaya

1

2

1

5

Baalbek-Hermel

2

6

1

10

Zahleh

1

2

1

7

W.Bekaa-Rachaya

2

1

6

Beirut 1

1

5

Beirut 2

1

2

4

Beirut 3

5

1

10

Under the currentlaw, the number of seats allocated todistricts ranges frombetween two to ten.There are no formalcriteria that outlinethe basis for thedistribution of seatsto different districtsor between differentconfessions presentin the district.

Thecurrent distributionof seats (shown inthe table opposite) isdone in the samemanner as seats weredistributed in the2000 and 2005elections; despitehaving differentelectoral districts,seats were stillallocated to specific

qada

.

Total Seats By Confession

27

8

2

34

14

8

5

1

128

The Electoral System

Lebanon’s electoral system has five basic elements:

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The right to stand is confessional

Seats can only be contested by candidates who are from theconfession it is allocated to (although there is no requirement for acandidate to prove their confessional status).

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The right to vote is non-confessional

Voters can vote for all available confessional seats, regardless of thevoter’s own confessional group.

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Voters have more than one vote

Lebanon uses multi-member electoral districts. Voters are able tovote for as many candidates as there are seats available. (This isknown as the

block vote

system.)

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Voters vote with a single ballot paper

On a single ballot paper, a voter chooses the names of candidatesthey wish to vote for. A voter may choose to use only some of thevotes they are entitled to.

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It is a plurality/majority system

Where there is only one seat for a confession, the seat is won bywhichever candidate from that confession has the most votes (ineffect, a

first-past-the-post

system). Where there is more than oneseat for a confession, the seats are won by as many candidatesfrom that confession who have received the most votes.