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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
The Chamber of Deputies (sometimes called the parliament) has
many responsibilities, but electing the president is its most
important. Despite its legislative role, traditionally the Chamber
of Deputies seldom has been involved in law making or policy
formulation. The Constitution details the duties and procedures of
the Chamber of Deputies and grants it considerable authority in
such matters as budgetary oversight and amending the Constitution.
But because of the strength of the presidency and the power of the
zuama, the Chamber of Deputies generally has been a
fragmented, inefficient body, playing an insignificant part in
Lebanese politics. In effect, it has merely been an extension of
the executive, rather than a separate, co-equal branch of
government.
Deputies are elected every four years by popular vote, but only
within the strictures of the confessional system. Each slot is
assigned to one sect or another according to its size in any
district. It should be noted, however, that party politics have
played almost no part in Lebanon and candidates campaign as part of
a "list" sponsored by a local zaim. In other words,
competition within districts is intrasectarian, in which, for
example, a Greek Catholic from one list would campaign against
Greek Catholics from other lists. Even though it is possible to
vote across lists, typically lists have been elected in toto. To
ensure the success of his list, a zaim often enters into
complex alliances with zuama supporting other lists in other
districts. As a result, one zaim may support another
zaim in a neighboring district but oppose him in another
district.
Because of the 1975 Civil War and the subsequent political
disintegration, as of late 1987 there had been no election since
1972. Elections have been somewhat chaotic, often characterized by
the strong-arm tactics of qabadayat, vote buying, and
general disruptions. Elections have been conducted in stages, as
much to allow voters to return to their home towns to cast ballots
as to permit the redeployment of security forces to limit
disturbances.
Money, of course, has been at the core of this system.
Regardless of confessional association, candidates have tended to
be men of wealth, often landlords, lawyers, or businessmen with
family connections to the local zaim. Not surprisingly,
candidates have frequently spent large sums to win elections. Once
in office, although he was still beholden to the zaim, a
deputy could further his accumulation of wealth. In addition, this
system has perpetuated the promotion of parochial interests over
the national welfare.
Despite its obvious unrepresentativeness, little reform to this
system has occurred. One important factor maintaining the system
has been the government's voting regulations, which encourage an
individual to vote in his home town or village, regardless of how
long he may have lived elsewhere. This policy reinforced the
political hold of the zaim and, at the same time,
discouraged the emergence of modern political parties
(see Political Parties and Groupings
, this ch.).
Several other features characterized the Chamber of Deputies in
1987. By custom, its speaker (also referred to as its president),
who was selected by the deputies, was a Shia Muslim. He presided
over a body of fairly well-educated men, many of whom were related
to one another. To be eligible for election, an individual had to
be at least twenty-five years of age; still, most members of the
Chamber of Deputies were over fifty years old. Only one woman,
Mirna Bustani, had ever served in the Chamber of Deputies, and this
was under unusual circumstances. Her father, Emile Bustani, a
deputy, died in office, and, being an only child, Mirna was
appointed to complete Emile's term in the 1960 Chamber od Deputies.
To accommodate the six-to-five formula for representation of
Christians to Muslims, the number of deputies has always been a
multiple of eleven, although the number has varied over time. In
1951 the Chamber of Deputies was increased from fifty-five to
seventy-seven members, in 1957 it was reduced to sixty-six, and in
1960 it was raised to ninety-nine. In the latter year, the Chamber
of Deputies was made up of thirty Maronites, twenty Sunnis,
nineteen Shias, eleven Greek Orthodox, six Druzes, six Greek
Catholics, four Armenian Orthodox, and three members of groups
minority
(see Lebanese Confessional "Societies,"
ch. 2).
Rather than trying to hold elections amid the chaos of the
1970s and 1980s, the Chamber of Deputies chose to renew its
members' terms every two years until "appropriate conditions" would
allow a free election. Moreover, it had not even been possible to
hold by-elections to fill seats of deceased members. In the mid1980s , government officials discussed appointing new deputies to
these seats. In addition, during this time a national consensus
developed to modify the formula of representation so that seats
would be evenly distributed. Furthermore, some officials proposed
that the size of the Chamber of Deputies be increased to 120.
Nonetheless, by 1987 none of these ideas had been implemented, and,
as a consequence, of the ninety-nine deputies elected in 1972, only
seventy-seven remained.
Data as of December 1987
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