Welcome to The New Arab’s coverage of Lebanon’s General Election 2022 held on May 15, 2022. Follow live updates, results, analyses, and opinion in our special hub here.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has been dealt a blow in Lebanon's parliamentary election with preliminary results showing losses for some of its oldest allies and the Saudi-aligned Lebanese Forces party saying it had gained seats, set to become the largest Christian parliamentary bloc.
With votes still being counted, the final make-up of the 128-member parliament has yet to emerge. The heavily armed Shia group Hezbollah and its allies won a majority of 71 seats when Lebanon last voted in 2018.
Reform-minded, opposition candidates challenging the ruling elite have also made significant gains, winning at least 10 seats in different electoral districts. This comes after the unprecedented October 2019 uprising.
Since Lebanon last voted, the country has been rocked by an economic meltdown that the World Bank has blamed on the ruling class, and by a massive explosion at Beirut's port in August 2020, which has killed over 220 people.