The last parliamentary elections in Lebanon were held nine years ago. Since then, the country has seen its executive body sit vacant for two years, watched parliament extend its tenure twice, and witnessed a prime minister abruptly resign and just as suddenly retract his resignation. A new electoral law, passed last summer, staved off a major political deadlock that threatened to leave the country without a parliament – and the bill set a vote deadline of May 2018. But as the country prepares to put the new electoral law to the test, many Lebanese expressed scepticism and a lack of enthusiasm for the May 6 parliamentary elections.
Lebanon is heading “toward one of the dullest elections since the end of the war in 1990”, wrote political analyst Joseph Bahout in a recent article.
The upcoming elections promise “no significant surprises” and do not offer “major political stakes, or programmes, mobilising the attention of voters”, argued Bahout.
But observers face a “difficulty” making sense of the upcoming elections due to “the time lapse since the last elections,” Halim Shebaya, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera.
Full Article: Will the Lebanese vote in parliamentary elections? | News | Al Jazeera.