Beirut, Lebanon – As southern Lebanon continues to endure from sporadic Israeli attacks regardless of a ceasefire signed in November between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, institution events have emerged as the largest winners of municipal elections.
Voting passed off over four weeks, beginning in Mount Lebanon – north of the capital, Beirut – adopted by the nation’s northern districts, Beirut and the jap Bekaa Valley, and concluding on Saturday in southern Lebanon.
Whereas Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim political and armed group, suffered setbacks to its political affect and navy capabilities throughout 14 months of conflict with Israel, the group’s voter base was nonetheless intact and handed it and Amal, its closest political ally, victories throughout dozens of municipalities.
“The Hezbollah-Amal alliance has held agency and help among the many Shia base has not skilled any dramatic erosion,” Imad Salamey, a professor of political science on the Lebanese American College, informed Al Jazeera.
Regardless of institution events successful nearly all of seats throughout the nation, candidates operating on campaigns of political reform and opposition to the political institution additionally made inroads in some elements of the nation, even successful seats in municipalities in southern Lebanon, the place Hezbollah traditionally has loved sturdy help.
In Lebanon, there isn’t a unified bloc of reformists though political actors and teams that emerged throughout the 2019 antigovernment protests over the financial disaster are referred to domestically as “el-tagheyereen”, or change makers.
“Various Shia candidates in some localities had been in a position to run with out dealing with important intimidation, signalling a restricted however rising house for dissent inside the group,” Salamey mentioned.
The actual fact the elections had been held in any respect will probably be seen as a boon to the pro-reform authorities of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who got here to energy in January, say analysts. The polls, initially set for 2022, had been delayed 3 times as a consequence of parliamentary elections, funding points and the conflict with Israel, which began in October 2023.
Critics, nonetheless, argued the elections favoured established events as a result of the uncertainty over once they can be held meant candidates waited to construct their campaigns. As not too long ago as March, there have been nonetheless proposals to delay the elections till September to provide candidates an opportunity to arrange their platforms after Lebanon suffered by means of the conflict and a two-month intensification by Israel from September to November, which left the nation needing $11bn for restoration and reconstruction, in accordance with the World Bank.
The conflict left Hezbollah politically and militarily battered after Israel killed a lot of its management, together with longtime Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his successor Hachem Safieddine.
The conflict reordered the ability stability in Lebanon, diminishing Hezbollah’s affect. Many villages in southern Lebanon are nonetheless inaccessible, and Israel continues to occupy 5 factors of Lebanese territory that it has refused to withdraw from after the ceasefire. It additionally continues to assault different elements of the south, the place it claims Hezbollah nonetheless has weapons.
With their villages nonetheless destroyed or too harmful to entry, many southerners forged ballots in Nabatieh or Tyre, an act that recollects the 18-year Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon that resulted in 2000. In the course of the occupation, elections for southern areas below Israeli management had been additionally held in different cities nonetheless below Lebanese sovereignty.
Hezbollah has given up nearly all of its websites within the south to the Lebanese military, a senior western diplomat informed Al Jazeera and native media has reported.
The current post-war interval additionally dropped at energy a brand new president, military commander Joseph Aoun, and the reform camp’s alternative for prime minister, Salam, former president of the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice in The Hague.
Hezbollah stays ‘sturdy’
Municipal elections will not be seen as an indicator of the nation’s standard sentiment as a consequence of low voter curiosity and native political dynamics differing from these on the nationwide stage. Some analysts dismissed the outcomes, calling them “insignificant” and added that subsequent yr’s parliamentary elections would extra precisely mirror which route the nation is headed.
Voter turnout was decrease in virtually each a part of the nation in contrast with 2016, the final time municipal elections passed off. The locations it fell included southern Lebanon, the place 37 % of the inhabitants voted. In 2016, 48 % of its voters forged ballots. This was additionally true in many of the Bekaa Valley, an space that additionally was hit exhausting throughout the conflict and the place Hezbollah tends to be the most well-liked celebration. Within the north, voter turnout dropped from 45 % in 2016 to 39 % in 2025. In Beirut, the turnout was marginally greater – 21 % in 2025 in contrast with 20 % in 2016.
Many individuals in southern Lebanon are nonetheless residing by means of the conflict as Israel continues to hold out attacks on areas like Nabatieh. Whereas some in and from the south have questioned Hezbollah’s standing and determination to enter right into a conflict with Israel on behalf of Gaza once they fired rockets on the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms territory on October 8, 2023, others nonetheless cling to their fervent help for the group.
“The municipal elections confirmed that Hezbollah and the Amal Motion stay sturdy,” Qassem Kassir, a journalist and political analyst believed to be near Hezbollah, informed Al Jazeera. “The forces of change are weak, and their function has declined. The celebration [Hezbollah] maintains its relationship with the individuals.”
Though reform forces did win some seats, together with in Lebanon’s third largest metropolis, Sidon, they had been largely at a drawback as a consequence of a scarcity of identify familiarity, the quick marketing campaign time and misinformation circulated by politically affiliated media.
Claims of corruption and contested election outcomes marred voting in elements of the north, the place many candidates from conventional political events dominated.
In Beirut, forces for change had been dealt a heavy blow. After receiving about 40 % of the vote in 2016, which nonetheless was not sufficient to earn them a municipal seat, the reformist Beirut Madinati (Beirut My Metropolis) listing received lower than 10 % of this yr’s vote.
The defeat passed off regardless of the worsening residing circumstances within the capital, which critics blamed on institution events, together with these operating the municipality.
“The municipality lives on one other planet, utterly indifferent from the considerations of the individuals,” Sarah Mahmoud, a Beirut Madinati candidate, informed Al Jazeera on Might 18 on the streets of Beirut as individuals went out to vote.
Since an economic crisis took maintain in 2019, electrical energy cuts have turn into extra widespread, and diesel mills have plugged the hole. These mills contribute to air air pollution, which has been linked to cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses in Beirut and carries cancer risks.
Regardless of the criticisms and degraded residing state of affairs within the metropolis, an inventory of candidates backed by institution figures and main events, together with Hezbollah and Amal, but additionally their main ideological opponents, together with the Lebanese Forces and the right-wing Kataeb Social gathering, received 23 out of 24 seats.
This listing ran on a platform that stoked fears of sectarian disenfranchisement and promised sectarian parity.
Municipalities, not like Lebanon’s parliament, shouldn’t have sectarian quotas.
‘What are you preventing for?’
The unlikely coalition of multinational events, which was just like the profitable listing in 2016 that aligned institution events towards reform candidates, puzzled some within the capital. In separate incidents, tv reporters confronted representatives from Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces, drawing indignant and confrontational reactions from them however little clarification as to why they’d align with an avowed enemy.
Bernard Bridi, a media adviser for the listing, mentioned its precedence was to herald a overseas consultancy that will advise the municipality on how one can handle Beirut like different main worldwide capitals. She added that the opposing events determined to unify as a result of the stakes are so excessive this yr after years of financial struggling, significantly because the conflict.
Critics, nonetheless, accused the institution events of attempting to maintain energy concentrated amongst themselves somewhat than let it fall to reformists who may threaten the system that has consolidated energy within the arms of some key figures and teams within the post-civil conflict period.
“The query is what are you preventing for,” Karim Safieddine, a political organiser with Beirut Madinati, mentioned, referring to the institution listing. “And if they’ll inform me what they’re preventing for, I’d be grateful.”
Now the nation’s eyes will flip to Might subsequent yr as events and actions are already getting ready their candidates and platforms for parliamentary elections.
In 2022, simply greater than a dozen reform candidates emerged from Lebanon’s financial disaster and subsequent standard rebellion. Some speculated that the reform spirit has subsided since hundreds of Lebanese have emigrated overseas – close to 200,000 from 2018 to 2021 alone – and others have grown disillusioned at a perceived lack of rapid change or disagreements amongst reform-minded figures.
Many Lebanese may also have final yr’s struggles throughout the conflict and wish for reconstruction in thoughts when heading to the polls subsequent yr.
Some have began to query or problem Hezbollah’s longtime dominance after seeing the group so badly weakened by Israel. Others are doubling down on their help as a consequence of what they mentioned is neglect by the brand new authorities and their perception that Hezbollah is the one group working of their pursuits.
“Taken collectively, these developments indicate a future trajectory the place Shia political help for Hezbollah stays stable however more and more remoted,” Salamey defined, “whereas its broader cross-sectarian coalition continues to shrink, doubtlessly decreasing Hezbollah’s affect in future parliamentary elections to that of a extra pronounced minority bloc.”
