A woman depositing her ballot in the ballot box for the legislative elections yesterday in the southern suburbs of Beirut. (Credit: Louai Beshara/AFP)
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s 2022 parliamentary election lacked equal airtime for candidates, while traditional political parties were at an advantage when it came to television appearances, according to a study published Wednesday by the Maharat Foundation, a Beirut-based advocacy organization.
Here’s what we know:
• The study found that candidates from emerging political parties, who accounted for about 60 percent of all candidates, were only given 5 percent of television appearances, while candidates from traditional parties received 95 percent, documented between Feb. 1 and May 15.
• As for talk shows, candidates who were fresh to the political scene appeared 37 percent of the time on these shows compared to 63 percent for those belonging to traditional political parties, again documented between Feb. 1 and election day.
• Women, who made up more than 16 percent of the total number of candidates, did not receive equal airtime compared with their male counterparts, Maharat found. Women candidates appeared in only 5 percent of news broadcasts about the parliamentary candidates, compared to 95 percent for men. The participation rate of women activists in talk shows was higher, at 18 percent, compared to 82 percent for men.
• According to the Maharat study, only o.13 percent of television coverage by “political activists and others” in the lead-up to the May 15 election included “voter education” content. Moreover, there was no record of “electoral media material targeted to people with disabilities.”