openDemocracy offers a visual tour of Beirut during one of the most closely fought contests in Lebanon's political history.
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On June 7, Lebanon held its first general election since the signing of the Doha Agreement in May 2008, a power-sharing accord reached in the Qatari capital that ended a near-civil war between militias loyal to Lebanon's two rival political blocs. While at first glance a barely fathomable tangle of sectarian interests, politics in Lebanon is now essentially a head-to-head contest between the then-incumbent pro-western March 14 Alliance and the oppositional Hizbollah-led March 8 Alliance.
March 14 is named for a mass demonstration held in Beirut on the one-month anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, which started the so-called Cedar Revolution and precipitated the expulsion of Syrian forces from Lebanon. The March 14 Alliance is led by the late Prime Minister's son, Saad Hariri of the Future Movement party; Samir Geagea, the president of the Lebanese Forces; Amine Gemayel of the Kataeb Party, and Walid Jumblatt of the predominantly Druze Progressive Socialist Party.
Meanwhile, the broadly pro-Syrian March 8 includes the Shi'ite presences of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's Hizbollah and Nabih Berri's Amal Movement, the former Lebanese Army general Michel Aoun's Christian Free Patriotic Movement, the Armenian Tashnag party and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
By the end of June 7 it became clear that the March 14 coalition was likely to retain power. Saad Hariri made a public declaration of victory in Beirut, pronouncing it "a great day for Lebanon and a great day for democracy". Official results were announced the following day: 71 seats to March 14 and 57 to March 8 - a more decisive outcome for the government than many had expected, but one that leaves the house divided in very much the same way it was before the polls. Christian voters in greater Lebanon, who largely rejected Aoun's alliance with March 8, are said to have held the key to March 14's win. On the evening of June 8 the Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made a speech via video link in which he accepted the results "with a great spirit of democracy".
Photographs and text by David Eden.
Music: Mawlid by Mutamassik and Taqsim by DJ/rupture feat. Abdelhak Rahal.
Special thanks to Jackson and Lamia.
