Lebanon

A civil society group criticized the Cabinet’s approval of a new electoral law Wednesday, calling the draft legislation a “show” and warning of protests if the proposal moves forward in its current form.

The Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform held a news conference at the UNESCO Palace to highlight the parts of the law they took issue with, including a new gender quota and unchanged voting age.

Lebanese women have made great strides in the private sector and are highly visible in the mainstream media as presenters and journalists. But in a country in which women make up about 53 percent of the population – more than 2 million women – their basic rights and representation has been limited in politics.
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Senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah stressed on Wednesday the right of women to become involved in politics and urged the Lebanese people to rebel against "anyone who obstructs the building of a strong Lebanese state."
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At least 133 violations of Lebanon's electoral law have been committed by various candidates and political parties over the last two weeks, a Lebanese elections watchdog group announced on Friday. The charges, which were observed between April 24 and May 7, range from the misuse of campaign financing to incitement of violence, and were detailed in a report issued Friday by the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE).

As has been the case for the past six decades or so, the usually turbulent politics of Lebanon mirror almost perfectly the many strands of political, ideological, commercial and criminal activities that define public life in the Arab world. So it is again with the elections that will take place on June 7, comprising a series of positive and negative attributes that give these elections much greater significance than would normally be the case. I would suggest five dimensions where the election results could shed light on pertinent national, regional and global issues.

As Lebanon's election approaches, the country's roadsides and rooftops are awash with colour-coded billboards vying to attract voters with puns, catchphrases and even what some say are sexist ads.The campaign poster that has sparked the most debate features the face of a brunette looking seductively at the camera next to the slogan: "Sois belle et vote," or "Be beautiful and vote".

Rights activists demanding a change to Lebanon's discriminatory nationality law say they hope the issue will be debated at the few remaining Cabinet sessions before parliamentary elections on June 7. Campaigners have long been urging Lebanon change the 1925 law to allow women to confer their Lebanese nationality to their husbands and children.
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Political candidates running in Lebanon's upcoming elections should clarify how they intend to improve the country's poor human rights record and promise to enforce Lebanon's obligations under human rights legislation, a leading human rights organization said on Wednesday.
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Out of the 587 candidates running in the Lebanese parliamentary elections this year, only 12 are women. If half of the female candidates make it, which, judging by previous election results and current alliances, is highly unexpected, female representation in parliament would amount to a mere four percent.Increasing female political participation has been listed on practically every single political platform, from Hezbollah’s to Future’s, but Lebanese women still show dismal numbers in parliament, something their sisters in many countries across the globe surpassed a long time ago.