Municipal race heats up in Lebanon's Bekaa and Baalbek-Hermel—An overview

Report by Yazbek Wehbe, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi  

As Lebanon heads toward municipal elections, the vast Bekaa region—divided administratively into the governorates of Bekaa and Baalbek-Hermel—emerges as a major electoral battleground in terms of geography and political influence.

In Baalbek-Hermel, the region comprises 74 municipalities in Baalbek and 8 in Hermel. 

Four key municipalities—Hermel, Baalbek, Chmistar, and Aarsal—each have 21 council members, highlighting their electoral significance.  

In the Bekaa governorate, 88 municipal councils and 251 mukhtars are distributed across 21 municipalities in the central Bekaa district, or Zahle, 31 in West Bekaa, and 26 in Rachaiya.

The political weight in Baalbek-Hermel predominantly lies with the Shiite community, where the region's two leading Shiite parties—Hezbollah and the Amal Movement—are working to avoid electoral clashes by forming uncontested lists. In several towns, they have secured victories by acclamation, and their efforts are ongoing.

However, in the city of Baalbek, a competitive race is underway between two main lists: one backed by the Amal-Hezbollah duo and another led by civil society activists running under the banner "Baalbek Madinati" (Baalbek is My City).
 
In Zahle, political divisions are also prominent. The current mayor, Asaad Zoghaib, heads a list supported by MP Michel Daher and the Kataeb Party. Facing them is a rival list led by Salim Ghazaly, backed by the Lebanese Forces. A potential third, incomplete list by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) has yet to be formed.

The Future Movement's failure to directly participate in the elections has left Sunni towns and villages confused amid the large number of candidates.

In the two Bekaa governorates, the clan dimension cannot be overcome in several towns, as disputes can easily be ignited, which hinders the formation of electoral lists.

In conclusion, although elections in Bekaa are considered easy, their family-clan structure makes the electoral reality more difficult.