It comes as no surprise that the bloc of candidates led by Saad Al-Hariri has made a clean sweep of Beirut, winning all the 19 seats in the capital, in the first round of parliamentary voting in Lebanon which began yesterday. Either because he is riding a wave of sympathy over his father Rafik Al-Hariri’s Feb. 14 assassination, or for lack of challengers in an election where there has been little campaigning and no electoral suspense, or both, Saad is set to sew up at least this first of four consecutive Sunday rounds of voting which will be conducted according to region.
But Saad’s anticipated victory is not the issue. The significance of this poll is that it is the first general election in three decades with no Syrian troops in Lebanon. It marks a new era for Lebanon, taking place just a month after flag-waving demonstrators — Christian and Muslim — united in unprecedented protests that helped force Damascus to bow to international pressure and end its 29-year military presence. The election is thus seen as a chance to seal the end of Syria’s political dominance after the last of its forces left last month.
The election is undoubtedly a special democratic accomplishment after the developments that Lebanon witnessed after the assassination of Hariri. But people — even ones oppressed for decades — can have short memories. The fact is that the initial euphoria after the Syrian pullout has given way to disenchantment among ordinary Lebanese who have watched anti-Syrian opposition leaders revert to traditional electoral horse-trading.
The elections may be free from direct Syrian manipulation but the run-up has been marked by a strong undercurrent of sectarianism amid the usual political bargaining. This is not unusual in Lebanese politics which is a brew of 18 diverse Muslim and Christian sects whose main aim is to squeeze as much as they can from the complicated electoral system. Almost all of the religious sects are given some share of the political power and a quota of seats in Parliament, but in a country where Christians and Muslims fought each other during a 15-year civil war, lack of trust lingers.
The under-the-table wheeling and dealing means the elections will not necessarily secure a future free of uncertainty. Saad vows he will pursue his father’s economic and political reform policies while predicting a tough battle in the coming months as Lebanon adjusts to independence from Syria. Many of the old faces are expected to return to the assembly, but at least Syria will no longer overshadow Lebanese politics as it once did during and since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Lebanon’s democratic tradition, which was curtailed during its civil war and nearly 30 years of Syrian control, dates back to its independence from France in 1943 and sets the country apart from most of the rest of the Arab world. The current election is evidence that Lebanon has returned to being once again a model to be emulated as it shows the way.
