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Lebanon: Political situation
Lebanese politics are still much controlled by Syria. Lebanon has a political system, where important positions are divided according to religious backgrounds.
Lebanon's dependency on foreign powers is quite a normal situation in the country's history, where the neighbor, Syria, now has the upper hand. Inside the country. Christians have relatively more power than their percentage of the Lebanese population should allow them. But the Muslims are awakening politically, and have increased their turnout in national elections after the civil war.
The constitution of Lebanon is dividing power between what it has defined as the country's three religious groups, the Shi'is, the Sunnis and the Maronite Christians. The president is always a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, while the speaker of the National Assembly a Shi'i Muslim. This has left the Christians the most powerful group politically, with the Shi'is as the least influential.
The National Assembly has 128 seats, which are out for free elections, every four years. The seats in the National Assembly are however distributed in advance between the different religious groups:
The degree of independence of Lebanon is debatable, with so much influence in the hands of Syria, and in the south, Israel and Iran.
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By: Tore
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