First parliamentary election in Lebanon since the country’s financial meltdown

Lebanese voted in the country’s first parliamentary election since the country’s economic collapse on Sunday, with many saying they hoped to punish ruling lawmakers blamed for the catastrophe, even if the chances of meaningful change look limited.

The election, the first since 2018, is considered a litmus test for whether the highly armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies can maintain their parliamentary majority in the face of increasing poverty and opposition to ruling parties.

Since the last election, Lebanon has been shaken by an economic catastrophe blamed on the governing elite, as well as a huge explosion at Beirut’s port in 2020.

While experts believe public outrage might help reform-minded candidates gain some seats, observers feel a significant shift in the balance of power is unlikely, with Lebanon’s sectarian political system biased 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.”

Fadi Ramadan, 35-year-old voting for the first time, said he wanted to give a “slap to the political system” by picking an independent.

“If the political system wins, but only just, I consider that I would have won,” said Ramadan, casting his vote in Beirut.

In southern Lebanon, a political stronghold for the Shiite Hezbollah movement, Rana Gharib said she had lost her money in Lebanon’s 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.

Polls are due to close at 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT), with unofficial results expected overnight.

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

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.

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