Lebanon goes to the polls on Sunday to elect new local councils after a 12-year hiatus, writes Omayma Abdel-Latif in Beirut After a nearly 12-year hiatus, municipal elections are due to be held in Lebanon in May, starting on 2 May in Mount Lebanon and continuing over the following four Sundays for the rest of Lebanon's five governorates. Over recent months, Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has struggled to change the present electoral law by introducing closed-list proportional voting in which voters would choose between lists of candidates and not the candidates themselves. Another change would be to enhance female representation by introducing a quota that would ensure 30 per cent women, and Baroud has also proposed that the heads and deputies of the country's municipalities should be directly elected by popular vote. However, after much deliberation and threats of delay to the elections, Baroud has been forced to give up these reforms. The elections themselves have also faced resistance from some political blocs, which have claimed that there was not enough time to introduce reforms to the electoral law. As a result, the May elections will be held under the current electoral law, under which candidates are elected on a block vote system. The advantage of this, according to a recent study, is that it encourages cross-confessional voting, particularly in areas having mixed confessional groups. The current law also makes victory possible for candidates having no party affiliation. This is significant in the Lebanese context since it could help break the monopoly of certain political forces over the electorate, though it could have the disadvantage of leading to the dominance of one political group. The campaigns before May's elections are expected to be carbon copies of those before the parliamentary elections held in June 2009, in which members of Lebanon's two rival political camps, the March 14 and March 8 movements, fought it out. This applies to several Christian areas, which are expected to witness fierce battles. One such is Al-Hadath in southern Beirut, where the municipal elections are expected to be a replay of the 2009 parliamentary elections, with March 14 and March 8 lists competing for seats. However, the municipal elections are also interesting because political rivals are building alliances in some constituencies. Negotiations are underway between the leading Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and its rivals, including former minister Michael Al-Murr, the Al-Kataieb (Phalange) Party and the Lebanese Forces, to form an alliance in the Al-Matn district, a predominantly Christian area. In Jezzine in south Lebanon, the FPM, the country's main political force, is also moving towards a joint list with its political rival the Lebanese Forces, though in other districts allies are turning against each other, as in Zahle, another predominantly Christian area, where the former allies of the FPM and former minister Ellie Skaf have failed to reach an agreement on a joint list. In Mount Lebanon itself, the stronghold of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, work has been underway to reach a consensus in several electoral districts and avoid electoral battles for seats on the municipal council. Jumblatt has held a series of meetings with rivals to reach a deal on a joint list, but efforts to achieve a consensual list in Beirut have failed and the capital looks set for a fierce battle between the opposition list, led by the FPM and most likely backed by Hizbullah, and the Tayyar Al-Mustaqbal Party, which has the strongest electoral machine in the capital. The elections in the South are not expected to yield any surprises. The two dominant political forces there, the Amal movement headed by Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, and Hizbullah have remained committed to their electoral alliance that dates from 2005, and they will have the upper hand in picking members of municipal councils in many districts. As has been the case for every election in Lebanon, Hizbullah officials have placed the forthcoming municipal elections under the banner of defending "the community of resistance." Hizbullah MP Mohamed Raad has also stated that the alliance between the resistance movement and Amal is aimed to underline the fact that Lebanese society is united behind the resistance. Another Hizbullah official, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said in a statement on 25 April that the alliance with Amal sought to achieve "consensus proportionality." Both movements, Qassem explained, had agreed to determine the numbers of those elected in each municipal council and village. Such a move would achieve "consensus proportionality" in representation, he said. The present elections are the first time that the two main Shia parties have run jointly in municipal elections. The last round of municipal elections in the country, held in 1998, saw fierce competition between their candidates both in the South and in the Beqaa district. This time round there will be no competition, but there has been criticism against the alliance, since it blocks independent candidates from running. Family and tribal ties also play a key factor in the selection process Most political forces running in the elections have presented their platforms in vague and general terms revolving around development issues. However, FPM leader Michael Aoun, declaring his party's electoral platform on 24 April, touched on Lebanon's key ailment of sectarianism. Aoun called on the Lebanese to renounce sectarianism and to embrace "competence," stressing that "if competence is not adopted, no one will be able to speak about abolishing political sectarianism."
