Lebanon (MNN) — Several anti-establishment candidates won seats in Lebanon’s recent election.
Wissam Nasrallah with the Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development (LSESD) says, “For the first time in our modern history, we have approximately 15 independent figures that were elected. And these figures come from the civil society that was the spearhead of the 2019 uprising.”
“These do not belong to a specific political party. They have been on the ground, working with the poor or on environmental issues.”
Hezbollah
Iran-backed Hezbollah retained the same number of seats they held before. But their allies in parliament, a Christian party called the Free Patriotic movement, lost seats.
This cost Hezbollah their parliamentary majority. Nasrallah says, “They provided Hezbollah with a Christian cover. This was very useful for Hezbollah on the international level, but also in terms of saying, ‘You’re accusing me of being radical, I’m allied with the biggest Christian party in Lebanon.’”
Lebanese Forces
Another Christian party, the Lebanese Forces, is now the biggest in Parliament.
They support the Sovereigntist camp, which believes Lebanon should rule itself. Nasrallah says the Sovereigntists include other Christian groups as well as inter-denominational parties and independents.
The Lebanese Forces have a history stretching back to the Lebanese Civil War. Nasrallah says, “They were one of the biggest Christian militias defending the Christian regions in Lebanon. In the 90s, they surrendered their weapons to the state and became a political party.”
How to pray
Nasrallah says the change will happen slowly. But he believes disrupting the rule of the political elite will have a positive effect.
In the meantime, people still live in poverty, expecting things to get worse before they get better. Pray the love of Christians for their neighbors will point to Jesus.
The header photo shows protesters in Beirut in 2019. (Photo courtesy of Nadim Kobeissi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
