The powerful Hezbollah movement and its allies have lost their majority in the Lebanese Parliament, according to the final results of the legislative elections on Tuesday which record a breakthrough of the traditional opposition and candidates from the 2019 protest movement.
The pro-Iranian Shiite movement and its political allies who had the support of around 70 of the 128 MPs in the incumbent parliament fell back in the face of the opposition and independents, failing to secure the 65 seats needed to retain a majority after the elections on Sunday.
The poll was held in a country plagued by the worst socio-economic crisis in its history attributed by a large part of the population, by international organizations and several foreign countries to the corruption and inertia of the ruling class, unchanged for decades.
No remedial measures have been taken by the ruling class accused of letting the country sink.
In this context, the independent candidates, from the protest movement launched in October 2019 and which lasted a few months to demand the departure of the political class, achieved good scores, with at least 13 candidates having obtained seats in Parliament.
They could line up in opposition to the traditional parties and position themselves as kingmakers for the formation of the new government.
Hezbollah and its Shiite ally Amal retained all of their seats, 27 in number.
Unprecedented, two independent candidates managed to win a seat in South Lebanon that had been held by Hezbollah allies for three decades.
The Lebanese Forces, a Christian party that has been part of the political class almost unchanged for three decades and firmly opposed to Hezbollah, announced that it had won at least 18 seats, compared to 15 seats in 2018.
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