SUNDAY morning is usually the only break in the hectic Beirut round of politics, commerce and partying. But on May 8th the streets were packed for a rare event: the chance to cast a ballot for an upstart player challenging the ruling dynasties for one of the Middle East’s most glittering municipal prizes.
Municipal elections would not usually cut much ice in a city that has seen it all; massacres, assassinations and a 15-year civil war. But in the six years since the previous municipal election in 2010 the country has reached boiling point. Since the last vote was cast, more than 1m Syrian refugees have crossed Lebanon’s border, and the economy is reeling. Sectarian squabbles have paralysed the parliament while crises mount outside: a reeking rubbish mountain, daily electricity and water outages, internet price-fixing and the quiet sell-off of some of the city’s last green spaces.
A sense of civic outrage has evolved into something new for Lebanese voters: secular, issue-based politics. For the first time since the civil war (1975-1990), an independent coalition of concerned citizens took on Lebanon’s old guard for...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1T552UO
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