The electoral system
Lebanon has a district system of voting. Since 1960 there are 26 districts, differing in size and number of seats they have in parliament. The smallest district has 1 seat, the largest 8. Parliament had 99 seats in total, which was increased to 108 in 1989.
7 Every seat is fixed to a certain religious sect. Beirut, for instance, is divided into 3 districts; in the third district 1 seat is reserved for a Sunni, 1 for a Shi’ite and one for a minority candidate (a Roman Catholic).
8 Every voter has one vote for every seat in the district; however, every candidate only runs against his own sectarian group. This meant that every candidate represented his own sectarian community.
Zu’ama
The Lebanese political system is characterised by a patron-client system, that is: a system of personal ties between a political leader called za’im (plural zu’ama) and the voter. The za’im provides services for the client in exchange for political support. These services can consist of getting them a telephone connection or a job, a promotion or protection from the police. The zu’ama were often members of families of landowners like the Karami family (Sunnis from Tripoli) or at least families that were always represented in parliament. Sometimes new leaders emerged where the son took over the political role from the father to create a new dynasty. This happened with the Sunni Ma’rouf Saad and his son Mustapha, for instance.
The za’im had several ways to maintain his clients:
- He needed to be elected regularly so he could provide services for his clients from the state coffers. The za’im was most effective if he was a member of the government and the result of this was that the composition of the government was changed often so as many leaders as possible could profit.9
- By providing services from other sources, such as own capital or connections with businessmen or charitable societies.
- By intimidating voters.
- By posing as the defender of the interests of his religious community. That meant the za’im represented the point of view of his community in parliament. This was a result of the electoral system.
It was a populist system: a za’im would respond to pressure from the street, but only to maintain his own position. He would manipulate the demands of his community if possible; if not then he supported them. In 1958, for instance, Saeb Salam and Abdallah al-Yafi responded to the emerging nasserism by joining the opposition against President Camille Chamoun while Sami al-Solh supported the president against the general mood of the Sunnis. As a result, his carreer as a za’im was finished (although it did not finish his family politically).
10 This also explains the rise of radical parties who could not offer the individual voter anything materially but could champion the interests of the community.
The most important Sunni zu’ama of Beirut in the 1960s and ‘70s were Saeb Salam, Othman al-Dana, Abdallah al-Yafi and Rashid al-Solh. They fought each other in differing alliances. In Tripoli there was only one important za’im, Rashid Karami, who took over his father’s political role after his death and was a member of parliament from 1951 onward.
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