Powersharing Transitional Government: Taif Accord

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Powersharing Transitional Government: Taif Accord

Implementations

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1989

Power sharing arrangement in the Chamber of Deputies did not occur in 1989.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1990

According to the U.S. State Department Human Rights report, political reforms stipulated in the Taif accord were approved through the constitutional amendments by parliament in August (21) 1990 and signed into law by the president in September (21) of that year. According to the revisions, the parliamentary seats will be equally divided between Christians and Muslims in an in an expanded 108-member Parliament.1 The seats were further divided between all of Lebanon’s 18 officially recognized religious sects.2“Lebanon Election 2009 – Lebanon’s election system,” accessed April 5, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/lebanon2009/2009/06/20096211481936043… The increases of new nine seats (from 99 to 108) were to be Muslim seats allocated to areas with Muslim demographic concentration.

  1. “Human Rights Report- Lebanon,” U.S. Dept. of State Dispatch, February 1, 1991.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1991

It was only in 1991 that the parliament passed Law 51 in 1991 making allocation of the increased seats.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1992

According to Khazan (Khazen), the balance of power both within Lebanon and between Beirut and Damascus had changed significantly by 1992. “Amid speculation and rumours in the press about the number of deputies, the Council of Ministers decided to adopt 134, an addition of 26 to the 108 agreed on in the Ta’if document. The stated reason for raising the number of deputies was to modify the representation of some sects (Druze and Greek Catholic). The tacit reason was to make the number 128 more acceptable to its opponents.”1 Finally government adopted Law 154 in 1992 raised the number of parliamentary seats to 128 instead of 108, thus adding 29 new seats to the prewar parliament.2 The additional nine and twenty nine seats were allocated in the following manner:

Maronite from 30 to 34, Greek Orthodox from 11 to 13, Greek Catholic from 6 to 8, Armenian Orthodox from 4 to 5, American catholic from 1 to 0, Protestant from 1 to 0, Minorities from 1 to 0, Sunni from 20 to 27, ShiÕa from 19 to 27, Druze from 6 to 8, and Alawite got 2 seats from none.3

  1. Farid el. Khazan, “Lebanon’s First Postwar Parliamentary Election, 1992: An Imposed Choice,” 1992, accessed April 5, 2011, http://almashriq.hiof.no/ddc/projects/pspa/elections92-part1.html.
  2. Bassel F. Salloukh, “The Limits of Electoral Engineering in Divided Societies: Elections in Postwar Lebanon,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 39 (2006): 644.
  3. Ibid.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1993

Power-sharing provision of the Taif agreement was implemented in 1992.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1994

No further developments observed.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1995

No further developments observed.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1996

No further developments observed.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1997

No further developments observed.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1998

No further developments observed.

Powersharing Transitional Government – 1999

No further developments observed.