Politics

Lebanon has a Republic government parliamentary democracy within the overal framework of confessionalism, in which the highest offices are proportionately reserved for representatives from certain religious communities. The constitution grants the people the right to change their government. However, from the mid-1970s until the parliamentary elections in 1992, civil war precluded the exercise of political rights.

According to the constitution, direct elections must be held for the parliament every 4 years. The last parliament election was in 2005. The Parliament, in turn, elects a President every 6 years to a single term. The President is not eligible for re-election. The president and parliament choose the Prime Minister. Political parties may be formed; most are based on sectarian interests.

Executive Branch

The President is elected by the Parliament for a six-year term (election last held 3 September 2004, to amend the constitution to extend President Lahoud's term for another three years).

The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are appointed by the President in consultation with the Parliament; the president is required to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of the Parliament a Shi'a Muslim. This confessional system is based on 1932 census data which showed the Maronite Christians as having a substantial majority of the population, something which it no longer holds. The Government of Lebanon continues to refuse to undertake a new census.

Legislative Branch

Lebanon's national legislature is called the Assembly of Representatives (Majlis al-Nuwab in Arabic). Since the elections of 1992 (the first since the reforms of the Taif Agreement of 1989 removed the built-in majority previously enjoyed by Christians and distributed the seats equally between Christians and Muslims), the Parliament has had 128 seats. The term was four years, but has recently been extended to five.

Seats in the Parliament are confessionally distributed but elected by universal suffrage. Each religious community has an allotted number of seats in the Parliament. They do not represent only their co-religionists, however; all candidates in a particular constituency, regardless of religious affiliation, must receive a plurality of the total vote, which includes followers of all confessions. The system was designed to minimise inter-sectarian competition and maximise cross-confessional cooperation: candidates are opposed only by co-religionists, but must seek support from outside of their own faith in order to be elected.

In practice, this system has led to gerrymandering. The opposition Qornet Shehwan Gathering, a group opposed to the present pro-Syrian regime, has claimed that constituency boundaries have been drawn so as to allow many Shi'a Muslims to be elected from Shi'a-majority constituencies (where the Hizbullah Party is strong), while allocating many Christian members to Muslim-majority constituencies, forcing Christian politicians to represent Muslim interests.

Judicial Branch

There are four Courts of Cassation (three courts for civil and commercial cases and one court for criminal cases). The Constitutional Council (called for in Ta'if Accord) rules on constitutionality of laws whilst the Supreme Council hears charges against the president and prime minister as needed. Additionally, Lebanon has a system of military courts that also has jurisdiction over civilians for the crimes of espionage, treason, and other crimes that are considered to be security-related.