The
pro-Western ruling party, whose government is backed by Saudi Arabia and the
West, lost seats, both to the Iranian-backed bloc led by Hezbollah, which is a
Shi’ite terrorist organization sponsored by Iran, and an anti-Hezbollah
Christian party. Hezbollah’s bloc now
has more than a third of the seats in Parliament, enough to veto
legislation. However, the outgoing Prime
Minister will likely be able to retain power through a weakened coalition. Hezbollah is part of the current coalition,
despite leading the Shi’ite-dominated opposition bloc. It is backed by the President, as some
Christians have made an alliance with it against the Sunni Muslims.
Elections are sectarian in Lebanon ,
as the Constitution divides executive power and parliamentary seats by sect,
with half the seats reserved for Christian sects and the rest for Muslims and
Druze. The President is always a
Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of Parliament a
Shi’ite Muslim.
The Lebanese parliamentary elections were the
first since the start of the Syrian Civil War, which has occasionally spilled
over into Lebanon
and which has caused a million Syrians to seek refuge in the small Arab
state. There have been occasional
attacks by Islamists. Lebanon has long been influenced by interference
from Syria ’s
Baathist regime of Bashar Assad, which Hezbollah is backing it the Syrian Civil
War. The war has divided Lebanon
politically. Lebanon itself has had a long
history of sectarian violence.
A weakened
economy and corruption were other major issues in the elections. There was a decrease in turnout, despite the
long gap since the previous election and a new election law that allowed proportional
representation.
The
opposition leader was elected Armenia ’s
Prime Minister last week by the Armenian Parliament, as expected, after
protests forced his predecessor’s resignation, even though the ruling party has
a large majority of the seats in the Parliament. Also, as expected, there will be no change in
policy vis-à-vis the Russian
Federation or the West. The new premier intends to negotiate peace
with neighboring Azerbaijan
over the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh that has been the source
of armed conflict between the two former Soviet
Republics since the dissolution of the
Soviet Union .
The ruling
party of Malaysia last week lost the parliamentary elections for the first time in sixty years, as a
billion-dollar corruption scandal involving the ruling Prime Minister caused
his political downfall. A former Prime
Minister, who had been part of the ruling party, will be the new premier. Although the nonagenarian former Prime
Minster was somewhat authoritarian and Islamist, his election was significant
for its anti-corruption theme. Since
last year, corruption has caused the removal from office by various means of
the leaders of South Korea , Brazil , Zimbabwe
and South Africa . Malaysia was the first since then
to remove its leader through election.
Parliamentary
elections were held yesterday in Iraq , under extraordinary
security. They are the first elections
since Iraq ,
aided by a U.S.-backed international coalition of Western and Arab states,
liberated its territory from the Islamic State Islamist terrorists. Some cells of the group remain, but although
there has been some violence targeting the elections, there is significantly
less overall violence than before. It is
hoped that Iraqis can overcome their sectarian divisions.
The
President of the Italian Republic was preparing the end of last week to name a
new government of his choice, led by a new Prime Minister, to guide Italy
through another parliamentary election this summer because of a hung parliament. But then the anti-establishment populist
party and the anti-immigrant far-right party appeared to make significant
progress toward agreeing to form a government after the conservative party of
former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, which won the fourth most votes and
seats in the March 4 parliamentary elections, decided it would not support such
a coalition externally, but abstain. The
abstention would allow for the formation of a government, as the two other
parties would have enough seats on their own.
Therefore, the President has given the two parties more time and they
have been working throughout the weekend to form a government. They are reaching agreement on common points
and must decide on a third person to be premier and on cabinet posts.
The
populists won the most votes and seats, while the anti-immigrant party was the
largest party within the right-wing bloc, which won the most votes and seats
overall, but short of a majority. In
third place overall was the ruling center-left party. Berlusconi’s center-right party, which was in
second place within the right-wing bloc, governs with the far-right party in
Regions and local jurisdictions. The
third party in the right-wing bloc, a small conservative party, is also not
joining the coalition.
A summer election would be a first
for Italy ,
which does not allow absentee voting.
Italians abroad do have several constituencies. The other reason there is urgency is because
without a budget, which requires a vote of confidence, under European Union
rules, Italy ’s
value added tax would increase dramatically.
Avoiding another vote and having a stable government would be good, but
the populism of the two “Trumpist” parties attempting to form a government is
disturbing, as they are both pro-Russian (pro-Vladimir Putin), anti-immigrant
and protectionist. They also oppose the
European Union’s budget constraints on Italy ,
despite Italy ’s
massive debt. Italy has been in a weak economic
recovery and its migrant crisis has been easing. Nevertheless, these problems, as well as
corruption, have increased populist sentiment among Italians.
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