Nasrallah admits to losing majority in post-election speech

BEIRUT — Three days after the 2022 parliamentary elections, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah spoke Wednesday night, admitting to losing the majority of seats in Parliament, an advantage his party and its allies have enjoyed since the 2018 elections, and said “maybe it is better for the country that no one has the majority.”

Here’s what we know:

    • In his first speech following the parliamentary elections, Nasrallah said that “If we had won the majority, the other side would boycott ruling the country and if they had won it we wouldn’t have boycotted… The situation now needs cooperation from all parties.”

    • “The easiest thing to do is to be an opposition and we have tried it but in the current situation avoiding your responsibility is betraying your country,” Nasrallah continued.

    • “The number of MPs that each party has does not represent their popularity because the election law is sectarian and unscientific, so no one can claim that they represent the people based on their parliamentary seats,” the Hezbollah head said. “Those who are outside don’t understand the election law or the sectarian nature of Lebanon,” he added.

    • Under fair election law, Nasrallah said, “Lebanon would be one district, the elections happen in a non-sectarian way, would be proportional and people aged 18 to 21 should be able to vote.” Lebanon’s electoral law divides the country into fifteen districts along sectarian lines and allows only people aged 21 and above to vote.

    • On the matter of deposits, which have been stuck in Lebanese banks since October 2019 after an unprecedented economic crisis wreaked havoc on the banking sector, Nasrallah said that “we have witnessed the biggest fraud in Lebanon’s history by the Lebanese banks which the American administration conducted.” Among Hezbollah’s list in South Lebanon III is the head of Mawarid Bank, Marwan Kheireddine, who failed to reach Parliament and was one of the few candidates to run on a Hezbollah-supported list and lose.

    • Though new parliamentary alliances have not been solidified, Sunday’s elections appear to have resulted in a setback for Hezbollah, Amal, the Free Patriotic Movement and their allies, which will most likely see them losing their majority in Parliament. Hezbollah alone earned 13 seats in the new Parliament. The Lebanese Forces became the biggest Christian party in Parliament, with 19 seats, compared with 17 seats belonging to the Free Patriotic Movement, Hezbollah’s ally.

    • Monday, the head of Hezbollah’s outgoing parliamentary bloc Mohammad Raad, warned his political rivals, saying "don't fan the flames of civil war.”