Mount Lebanon Governor Mohammad Makkawi announced Tuesday that 53 out of 330 municipal councils in the region have been elected by acclamation, meaning they won without any opposition.

Among the towns concerned, the municipal councils of Burj al-Barajneh and Mraijeh in the southern suburbs of Beirut won by acclamation.

Municipal elections are scheduled to take place over three Sundays and one Saturday in May, with Mount Lebanon opening the votes on Sunday May 4. These elections have been postponed three times, in 2022, 2023, and 2024. 

On April 24, Makkawi had announced that the "number of municipalities in which the election result was decided by acclamation was 36 out of 330 municipalities in Mount Lebanon, most of which are small municipalities.”

Earlier, Lebanon's Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar said Tuesday as he visited the Baabda Serail that recent "security developments" will not affect upcoming municipal elections, despite continued Israeli strikes in South Lebanon and a recent attack on Beirut's southern suburbs.

On Sunday, the Israeli army carried out an airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut for the first time in the past three weeks, raising fears of a new escalation. Following a cease-fire in late November which ended 13-month of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Israeli airstrikes continued in Southern Lebanon on a near daily basis. Meanwhile, the southern suburbs of Beirut have been targeted three times since the cease-fire.

During his visit, Hajjar was received by Mount Lebanon Governor Judge Makkawi, mayors, heads of departments concerned with elections and representatives of security agencies in the governorate.

Hajjar inspected the preparations for the vote in Baabda and was briefed on the progress of preparations within the governorate. He also inspected the ballot boxes, which are now ready for delivery at the scheduled time, and stressed the "need to secure their delivery and accompany their transportation to the polling centers safely to ensure that the electoral process proceeds with the desired accuracy and integrity."

From there, Hajjar said: "I met with the governor and the mayors and confirmed that all preparations are ready and the goal is for the elections to take place smoothly and without any issues."

"Security updates do not deter us from completing the constitutional entitlement", he added.

Derian keen on holding elections

Later on Sunday, Hajjar headed to Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni authority in Lebanon, where he met with the Mufti of the Republic, Abdel Latif Derian.

From there, he emphasized that Derian is keen to hold the municipal elections as well as to maintaining parity (between Muslims and Christians) in the city of Beirut.

Observers note that Muslim-Christian parity within the Beirut Municipal Council — not enshrined in law but a tacit consensus — could disintegrate following the boycott of the election by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his Future Movement, the main Sunni political party in Beirut.

Hajjar also reiterated that the government and the Interior Ministry "work according to the agenda of the Lebanese state and not the agenda of any foreign state."