Polling station volunteers hold up an empty ballot box at Omar Fakhoury school in Beirut, during municipal elections on May 18, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
The third round of municipal elections took place in Lebanon today, this time in Beirut and the Bekaa. In the capital, heavy skies topped an atmosphere of relative calm, interrupted periodically by the buzzing of Israeli drones.Beirut's municipal elections was marked, as has become tradition, by a very low turnout. The last time municipal elections were held, in 2016, about 20 percent of eligible voters turned up at the booths: Local elections in Beirut are not known for drawing a crowd and this year was no exception at 21.03 percent turnout by the time the polls closed at 7 p.m.Despite everything that has happened since the last election — the thawra, the double explosion at the Port, frozen bank accounts, and the war between Israel and Hezbollah — Beirutis stuck to their modus operandi. For some polling stations, the voter appears to...
The third round of municipal elections took place in Lebanon today, this time in Beirut and the Bekaa. In the capital, heavy skies topped an atmosphere of relative calm, interrupted periodically by the buzzing of Israeli drones.Beirut's municipal elections was marked, as has become tradition, by a very low turnout. The last time municipal elections were held, in 2016, about 20 percent of eligible voters turned up at the booths: Local elections in Beirut are not known for drawing a crowd and this year was no exception at 21.03 percent turnout by the time the polls closed at 7 p.m.Despite everything that has happened since the last election — the thawra, the double explosion at the Port, frozen bank accounts, and the war between Israel and Hezbollah — Beirutis stuck to their modus operandi. For some polling stations, the voter appears...