Lebanon Holds First Parliament Election since Financial Collapse, Blast

A woman votes during parliamentary elections in Beirut, Lebanon, 15 May 2022. (EPA)
A woman votes during parliamentary elections in Beirut, Lebanon, 15 May 2022. (EPA)
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Lebanon Holds First Parliament Election since Financial Collapse, Blast

A woman votes during parliamentary elections in Beirut, Lebanon, 15 May 2022. (EPA)
A woman votes during parliamentary elections in Beirut, Lebanon, 15 May 2022. (EPA)

Lebanese voted on Sunday in the first parliamentary election since the country's economic collapse, with many saying they hoped to deal a blow to ruling politicians they blame for the crisis even if the odds of major change appear slim.

The election is seen as a test of whether the Iran-backed Hezbollah party and its allies can keep their assembly majority amid soaring poverty and anger at parties in power.

Since Lebanon last voted in 2018 it has suffered an economic meltdown that the World Bank says was orchestrated by the ruling class, and a massive explosion at Beirut's port in 2020.

But while analysts believe public anger could help reform-minded candidates win some seats, expectations are low for a big shift in the balance of power, with the sectarian political system skewed in favor of established parties.

"Lebanon deserves better," said Nabil Chaya, 57, voting with his father in Beirut.

"It's not my right, it's my duty - and I think it makes a difference. There's been an awakening by the people. Too little too late? Maybe, but people feel change is necessary."

The meltdown has marked Lebanon's most destabilizing crisis since the 1975-90 civil war, sinking the currency by more than 90%, plunging three-quarters of the population into poverty, and freezing savers out of bank deposits.

In a symptom of the collapse, polling stations across the country suffered power cuts on Sunday.

In southern Lebanon, a political stronghold for the Shiite Hezbollah, Rana Gharib said she had lost her money in the financial collapse, but was still voting for the group.

"We vote for an ideology, not for money," said Gharib, a woman in her thirties who was casting her vote in the village of Yater, crediting Hezbollah for driving Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000.

Fistfights and other disputes disrupted voting in several districts, according to the state-run news agency, with security forces intervening so it could resume. Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said incidents remained "at an acceptable level."

Tensions were particularly high between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces.

The LF is vehemently opposed to Hezbollah's arsenal of weapons and tried to run Shiite candidates in Hezbollah-dominated areas, although most withdrew before Sunday.

The LF said Hezbollah supporters had attacked their delegates at several polling stations, leaving at least four wounded in the southern district of Jezzine.

A Hezbollah official said the group had no presence in Jezzine and a statement by the party later blamed the LF for starting clashes in other districts.

The last vote in 2018 saw Hezbollah and its allies - including President Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), a Christian party - win 71 out of parliament's 128 seats.

Those results pulled Lebanon deeper into the orbit of Iran, distancing it from the Arab world.

Hezbollah has said it expects few changes from the make-up of the current parliament, although its opponents, including the LF, hope to scoop up seats from the FPM.

Adding a note of uncertainty, a boycott by Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri has left a vacuum that both Hezbollah allies and opponents are seeking to fill.

In Hariri's main stronghold in Beirut, residents skipped voting and instead took time out to relax, some going swimming.

Polls closed at 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT), with voting continuing inside some centers. Unofficial results are due in overnight.

Two hours ahead of polls closing, the interior ministry announced a 32% voter turnout.

By comparison, the expatriate vote which took place last week saw a turnout over 60%. Analysts are already expecting the outcome to face a slew of objections, especially in districts where newcomers are taking on established parties.

"Where competition is fierce and where the electoral threshold is something opposition parties can overcome, we're going to see a lot of disputes," said elections expert Amal Hamdan.

The next parliament must nominate a prime minister to form a cabinet - a process that can take months. Any delay would hold up reforms that are needed to address the crisis and unlock support from the International Monetary Fund and donor states.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who clinched a draft IMF deal in April, conditional on reforms, has said he would be ready to return as premier if he was sure of a quick cabinet formation.



Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

Israel has rejected accusations of "genocide" from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted after the Palestinian group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools," she added.

'Extreme levels of suffering'

Gaza's civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons' tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.

The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.

The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers," it said in a statement.

Amnesty's report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza "displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water".

Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks".

It said Israel's actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, "the world's governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire".

Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".

"Israel's system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians," it said.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced "the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year" as well as "the world's complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".