Parliamentary elections were held in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

on 7 June 2009 to elect all 128 members of the

Parliament of Lebanon The Lebanese Parliament (, ) is the unicameral national parliament of the Lebanon, Republic of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year term in Electoral district, multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanon's divers ...

. Although general elections are held every four years, this parliament due to various reasons stayed in power until the 2018 general election.

Background

The 2009 election was the first general election in Lebanon to be done in one day. Usually, the election used to be divided into four rounds across four weeks, with each round being held in different regions across Lebanon. Before the election, the voting age was to be lowered from 21 to 18 years, but as this requires a constitutional amendment, it did not happen before the election.

Allocation of seats

Following a compromise reached in the Doha Agreement in May 2008 between the government and opposition, a new electoral law was put in place, as shown in the table below. It was passed on 29 September 2008.

Results

Preliminary results indicated that the turnout had been as high as 55%. The March 14 Alliance garnered 71 seats in the 128-member parliament, while the

March 8 Alliance The March 8 Alliance () is a loose coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon formed in 2005 that are united by their pro- Ba'athist Syria stance and their opposition to the former March 14 Alliance. It was the ruling coalition ...

won 57 seats. This result is virtually the same as the result from the election in 2005. However, the March 14 alliance saw this as a moral victory over

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

, who led the March 8 Alliance, and the balance of power was expected to shift in its favor. Many observers expect to see the emergence of a National Unity Government similar to that created following the Doha Agreement in 2008.

Formation of government

As is typical of Lebanese politics political wrangling after the elections took 5 months. Only in November was the composition of the new cabinet agreed upon: 15 seats for the March 14 Alliance, 10 for the March 8 Alliance, and 5 nominated by Lebanese President

Michel Suleiman Michel Suleiman ( ; born 21 November 1948) is a Lebanese politician who served as the 12th president of Lebanon from 2008 to 2014. Before becoming president, he served as commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces from 1998 to 2008. After Lebanese A ...

, who has cast himself as a neutral party between the two main political blocs.

Aftermath

The government fell in January 2011 after the

March 8 alliance The March 8 Alliance () is a loose coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon formed in 2005 that are united by their pro- Ba'athist Syria stance and their opposition to the former March 14 Alliance. It was the ruling coalition ...

's 11 ministers withdrew from the government over PM Hariri's refusal to convene a cabinet meeting to discuss possible indictments to be issued by the

Special Tribunal for Lebanon The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), also referred to as the Lebanon Tribunal or the Hariri Tribunal, was a tribunal of international character that was active between 2009 and 2023. It applied Lebanese criminal law under the authority of ...

. The March 8 alliance formed a new government in the ensuing six months, at which point the seats in parliament were divided as follows. , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , Alliances ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , Parties ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats , - , style="text-align:center;vertical-align:top;" rowspan=15 , Government
68 , style="background-color:orange;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;" rowspan=6 , 27 , style="background-color:orange;text-align:left;" colspan=2 , Change and Reform bloc , - , style="text-align:left;" , Free Patriotic Movement (''Tayyar Al-Watani Al-Horr'') , style="text-align:right;" , 19 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Lebanese Democratic Party (''Hizb al-democraty al-lubnany'') , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Marada Movement , style="text-align:right;" , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Armenian Revolutionary Federation The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (, abbr. ARF (ՀՅԴ) or ARF-D), also known as Dashnaktsutyun (Armenians, Armenian: Դաշնակցություն, Literal translation, lit. "Federation"), is an Armenian nationalism, Armenian nationalist a ...

(''Tashnag'') , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Solidarity Party (''Hizb Al-Tadamon Al-Lubnany'') , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , - , style="background-color:yellow;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;" rowspan=5 , 30 , style="background-color:yellow;text-align:left;" colspan=2 ,

, - , style="text-align:left;" , Amal Movement (''Harakat Amal'') , style="text-align:right;" , 13 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Loyalty to the Resistance (''Hezbollah'') , style="text-align:right;" , 13 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Syrian Social Nationalist Party The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP; ) is a Syrian nationalist party operating in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. It advocates the establishment of a Greater Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present-day Syria, Leb ...

(''al-Hizb al-Qawmi al-souri al ijtima'i'') , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , style="background-color:lightgrey;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;" rowspan=4 , 11 , style="background-color:lightgrey;text-align:left;" colspan=2 , Pro-Government Independents , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Progressive Socialist Party The Progressive Socialist Party () is a Lebanese political party. Its confessional base is in the Druze sect and its regional base is in Mount Lebanon Governorate, especially the Chouf District. Founded by Kamal Jumblatt in 1949, the party ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 7 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Glory Movement , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Safadi Bloc , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , style="text-align:center;vertical-align:top;" rowspan=11 , Opposition
60 , style="background-color:#5bb9ee;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;" rowspan=11 , 60 , style="background-color:#5bb9ee;text-align:left;" colspan=2 , March 14 Alliance , - , style="text-align:left;" , Future Movement (''Tayyar Al Mustaqbal'') , style="text-align:right;" , 29 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Lebanese Forces The Lebanese Forces ( ') is a Lebanon, Lebanese Christianity in Lebanon, Christian-based political party and Lebanese Forces (militia), former militia during the Lebanese Civil War. It currently holds 19 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's Parliamen ...

(''al-Quwāt al-Lubnāniyya'') , style="text-align:right;" , 8 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Kataeb Party The Kataeb Party (), officially the Kataeb Party – Lebanese Social Democratic Party ( '), also known as the Phalangist Party, is a right-wing Christian political party in Lebanon founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936. The party and its parami ...

(''Hizb al-Kataeb'') , style="text-align:right;" , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Murr Bloc , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (''Social Democrat Hunchakian Party'') , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Islamic Group (''Jamaa al-Islamiya'') , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (''Ramgavar Party'') , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Democratic Left Movement (''ĥarakatu-l-yasāri-d-dimuqrātī'') , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;" , National Liberal Party (''Hizbu-l-waTaniyyīni-l-aHrār'') , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Independents (including ''ex-PSP'') , style="text-align:right;" , 10 , - , – , – ! style="text-align:left;" rowspan="6", Total ! style="text-align:right;" , 128 , -
Source

References

External links

Official Site

Robert Worth, April 22, 2009, ''

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Lebanese Elections 2009 BLOG

Interactive Result Map

Obama's Path Passes Through Lebanon
by Pol Marillas, Opinion, June 2009;

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{{Lebanese elections

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Elections in Lebanon Michel Aoun