Polling Begins In First Lebanon Vote Since Crisis

Beirut, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th May, 2022 ) :Polling stations opened Sunday across Lebanon for the first parliamentary elections since multiple crises brought the country to its knees, AFP correspondents reported.

A total of 3.9 million Lebanese are eligible to vote, with polling closing at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) and results expected on Monday.

The vast majority of parliament's 128 seats are expected to remain in the hands of the same parties that have dominated Lebanon's political life for more than three decades.

The previous polls in 2018 yielded a chamber in which the Iran-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah held a majority in alliance with the parties of Speaker Nabih Berri and President Michel Aoun.

Only one independent candidate made it to parliament four years ago, only to resign two years later in the aftermath of August's explosion at the Beirut port, in which state negligence and corruption were blamed for the deaths of more than 200 people.

An October 2019 uprising calling for a democratic and non-sectarian state fizzled out as an unprecedented economic crisis started ravaging Lebanon but some of the groups it spawned are hoping for a breakthrough.

A total of 718 candidates, 157 of them women, are running on 48 lists in a vote Lebanon's international donors have stressed is a pre-requisite for financial rescue measures.

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