Can coalition of reformers snag Lebanese parliament seats?
An array of civil and Reformist groups are calling for a coalition to challenge the country’s traditional and dominant political parties in the 2017 parliamentary elections.
BEIRUT — Michel Aoun’s election as president on Oct. 31 ended the longest presidential vacancy in Lebanon’s history, and with that and Saad Hariri’s appointment as prime minister, Lebanese are now turning their attention to next summer’s parliamentary elections. After parliament extended its term for a second consecutive time in 2014, new groups arose to challenge the powers that have traditionally dominated Lebanon’s government, making for a potentially historic election.
A series of popular movements emerged out of the 2015 garbage protests, channeling protesters’ demands and presenting voters with political alternatives. Although Lebanese civil society groups have thus far fallen short of their objectives of winning elections and deciding government policy, they have inspired a new wave of Reformist parties that could for the first time realistically contest the current political elite at the parliamentary level.
Sami Atallah, executive director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, said an array of new parties is gearing up for the elections. “Definitely there is an excitement,” he told Al-Monitor. “There are so many groups. I know of at least 20, and there is probably another 10 or 15 that I don’t know of, maybe another 20. Some of them are new, some of them are old, some of them are doing other things — but they want to run, so there is sort of an intoxication with this.”
“‘Beirut Madinati did it, we can do it,’” he said, explaining the new groups' hopes and referring to a new party that ran in the municipal elections last year. “But it’s hard, it’s not going to be a picnic. There are many groups, but I don’t know what the success rate is going to be.”
