Lebanese general election, 2005

Lebanese general election, 2005

29 May 2005, 5 June 2005, 12 June 2005, and 20 June 2005
All 128 seats to the Parliament of Lebanon
First party Second party   Leader Saad Hariri Michel Aoun Party March 14 March 8 Seats won 69 seats 57 seats
Prime Minister before election Najib Mikati Independent Elected Prime Minister Fouad Siniora March 14

The 2005 Lebanese General Elections were the second elections in thirty years without a Syrian military or intelligence presence in Lebanon. These elections were the first in Lebanese history to be won outright by a single electoral block and were also the first to be monitored by the United Nations.

Results

First round

The first round was held on May 29, 2005 in Beirut. The Rafik Hariri Martyr List, a coalition of Saad Hariri's Current for the Future, the Progressive Socialist Party and other anti-Syrian parties, won all 19 seats. Saad Hariri is the son of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri who was assassinated in February 2005, in a car bombing in Beirut. The coalition left one seat free for a Shiite candidate from Hezbollah.

Second round

The second round was held on June 5 in South Lebanon and Nabatyeh Governorate. The Resistance and Development Bloc, a joint ticket by the two main Shiite parties Amal and Hezbollah, in addition to Bahiya Al-Hariri, the sister of the assassinated late Prime Minister Rafic Al-Hariri and Oussama Saad from Sidon, won all 23 seats. Official tallies showed the Resistance and Development Bloc receiving more than 80% of the vote.

Third round

The third round was held on June 12 in Beqaa and Mount Lebanon. In Mount Lebanon the Hariri List won 17 seats, as did the Aoun Alliance, made up of Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and two smaller parties; Hezbollah won one. In Beqaa, the Resistance and Development Bloc won 11 seats, the Hariri List eight, and the Aoun Alliance four. Aoun re-stamped his authority as a major Christian leader on the political scene.

Fourth round

The fourth and final round was held on June 20 in North Governorate. The Hariri List won all 28 seats, giving them a total of 72 of the National Assembly's 128 seats.

Total

 Summary of the 29 May – 20 June 2005 Lebanese National Assembly election results

Alliances	Seats	Parties	Votes	%	Seats
March 14 Alliance	69	Future Movement (Tayyar Al Mustaqbal)			36
		Progressive Socialist Party (Hizb al-Taqadummi al-Ishtiraki)			16
		Lebanese Forces (al-Quwāt al-Lubnāniyya)			6
		Qornet Shehwan Gathering Phalangist or Kataeb Party (Hizb al-Kataeb) Independents			6
		Independents (Tripoli Bloc)			3
		Democratic Renewal (Tripoli Bloc)			1
		Democratic Left (Tripoli Bloc)			1
March 8 Alliance	57	Hope Movement (Harakat Amal)			14
		Hezbollah			14
		Syrian Social Nationalist Party (al-Hizb al-Qawmi al-souri al ijtima'i)			2
		Others			5
		Free Patriotic Movement (Tayyar Al-Watani Al-Horr)			15
		Skaff Bloc			5
		Murr Bloc			2
Independents	2	Independents			2
Total					128

Turnout

In the first round of the elections, the turnout was only 28%. In the second round of the elections, the turnout was between 43 and 55%.

See also

List of Lebanese Members of Parliament

Lebanese general election, 2009

External links

• Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker
• Documentary photography project on Lebanon during the time leading up to the 2005 elections by Austrian Photojournalist Stephan Rauch