Political parties in Lebanon

Lebanon has numerous political parties, but they play a much less significant role in Lebanese politics than they do in most parliamentary democracies. Many of the "parties" are simply lists of candidates endorsed by a prominent national or local figure. Loose coalitions, usually organized locally, are formed for electoral purposes by negotiation among leaders and candidates representing various religious communities; such coalitions usually exist only for the election, and rarely form a cohesive bloc in the National Assembly after the election. Until 2005, no single party had ever won more than 12.5 percent of the seats in the National Assembly, and no coalition of parties had won more than 35 percent.

Especially outside of the major cities, elections tend to focus more on local than national issues, and it is not unusual for a party to join an electoral ticket in one constituency while aligned with a rival party—even an ideologically opposite party—in another constituency.

Since 2005, and after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, the political scene has become very polarized, with most major political parties and movements becoming part of one of two big rival alliances, the March 8 Alliance and the March 14 Alliance. However there are also a number of independent Lebanese politicians who are not specifically part of any of the two, but considered "independent" (a third force) loosely allied as a group to supporting the incumbent Lebanese President, now Michel Suleiman. There are other independent groups that have not allied with any of the sectarian figure. Such independent groups include Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Parties

Although almost every party is strongly dominated by a particular faith community, it should be noted that most nonetheless maintain that they are secular.

v t e Political parties in Lebanon Government (68) March 8 Alliance (28) Amal Movement (13) Hezbollah (12) Syrian Social Nationalist Party (2) Ba'ath Party (2) Popular Nasserist Organization Change and Reform Bloc (27) Free Patriotic Movement (19) Lebanese Democratic Party (4) Marada Movement (3) Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Tashnag, 2) Solidarity Party (1) Skaff Bloc Others (13) Progressive Socialist Party (11) Glory Movement (2) Lebanese Communist Party Arab Democratic Party People's Movement Opposition (60) March 14 Alliance (60) Future Movement (26) Lebanese Forces (8) Kataeb Party (5) Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (2) National Liberal Party (1) Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (Ramgavar, 1) Democratic Left (1) Islamic Group (1) Democratic Renewal Movement Lebanese National Bloc Free Shia Movement Shuraya Party Tripoli Bloc Syriac Union of Lebanon Independence Movement Others (1) Hizb ut-Tahrir Portal:Politics List of political parties Politics of Lebanon

See also

Commons has media related to Political parties in Lebanon.

• Politics of Lebanon
• List of political parties by country

External links

• A Basic Guide to Lebanon's government, factions and political parties