A polling station in Hadath, in the suburbs of Beirut, on May 4, 2025. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L'Orient-Le Jour)
The Lebanese Interior Ministry released on Thursday the percentage of women elected during municipal and mokhtar [mayor] elections, held in May. Among the elected members of the municipal councils, 10.37 percent are women.
In the mokhtar councils, 16.40 percent of the seats were won by women. As for the mokhtar positions themselves, only 2.42 percent were awarded to women.
After a three-year delay, the municipal elections began on May 4 and took place over the four weekends of the month. The last municipal deadline was in 2016, and since municipal councils have a six-year term, their term should have expired in 2022. Lebanon was then unable to organize new municipal elections, mainly due to the financial crisis of 2019, the double explosion at the Beirut port in 2020 and the usual administrative chaos.
