\u2018Ballot box revolution\u2019
\n BEIRUT
\nLebanon holds parliamentary elections on Sunday while reeling from an economic crisis that has pushed more than three-quarters of the population into poverty.
\nVoter participation is expected to be higher this year following an increase in diaspora voting last week.
\nSome 3.9 million eligible voters will select their preferred representatives among 718 candidates spread across 103 lists in 15 districts and 27 subdistricts, an increase from 597 candidates and 77 lists in 2018.
\nThe European Union has deployed 170 observers all over the country to monitor procedures on election day.
\nElections monitors from the NGO the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections told Al Jazeera that Hezbollah and Amal partisans in several southern and eastern towns threatened and kicked them out from several polling stations. One monitor was attacked.
\nMeanwhile, in the eastern town of Zahle and southern town of Kfar Melki. Altercations broke out between Hezbollah and Amal members and Christian Lebanese Forces. Several were wounded according to eyewitnesses.
\nLebanon\u2019s semi-democracy has a unique confessional power-sharing system. Its parliament consists of 128 divided evenly among the country\u2019s mosaic Muslim and Christian denominations. Lebanon\u2019s president is a Maronite Christian, its prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim.
\nThe country\u2019s electoral law allocates seats proportionately based on a two-vote system. Voters select a list of candidates running together followed by a \u201cpreferential vote\u201d for their favourite candidate from that list.
\nPresident Michel Aoun in a speech on Saturday called on citizens to vote in large numbers. \u201cThe revolution of the ballot box is the most honest one,\u201d Aoun said.
\nSome 4 million people are eligible to vote in the first election held since a deadly explosion ripped through Beirut Port in 2020 [Kareem Chehayeb\/Al Jazeera]
\nVoter participation is expected to be higher this year following an increase in diaspora voting last week.
\nSome 142,041 out of 244,442 registered expatriate voters headed to the polls last week on May 6 and 8 across 48 countries, with a 63.05 percent turnout, according to the foreign ministry. This was more than triple their participation in Lebanon\u2019s previous election in 2018.i Al
\nLebanon\u2019s voter turnout in 2018 was just short of 50 percent.
\nFollowing the 2019 uprising, this year\u2019s election also includes many anti-establishment candidates representing new political groups and movements. In 2018, only former journalist Paula Yacoubian in Beirut won a seat.
\nWhile analysts anticipate anti-establishment candidates will possibly win additional seats, they say the balance of power will ultimately remain the same.
\nZeina Tabsh, currently unemployed, told Al Jazeera in Beirut that she chose to vote for new candidates away from traditional parties.
\n\u201cI hope for change for my children,\u201d Tabsh said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to have to leave Lebanon. I want change.\u201d
\nSuleima Abu Merhi was far less optimistic but still opted to vote.
\n\u201cWe hope the people we vote for won\u2019t forget their morals if they are elected,\u201d she said. \u201cI myself am not hopeful, but it is our civic duty to go out and vote.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Ballot box revolution\u2019 BEIRUT Lebanon holds parliamentary elections on Sunday while reeling from an economic crisis that has pushed more than three-quarters of the population into poverty. Voter participation is expected to be higher this year following an increase in diaspora voting last week. Some 3.9 million eligible voters will select their preferred representatives among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-260712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n