​In 1960, a new electoral law was adopted in Lebanon and remained in force in the elections held in 1964, 1968 and 1972. The law was reintroduced in the most recent elections in 2009 but with amendments to Beirut’s three electoral districts. The 1960s law is still adopted today.

 

Political and sectarian alliances have clearly shifted in the period between 1960 and 2014. Most striking in the electoral landscape was the immense increase in the number of voters, which grew from 1,054,774 in 1960 to 3,533,269 in 2014, i.e. up by 2,478,495 voters or 235% as illustrated in Table 1. 

 

The percentage of increase differed from one district to another reaching its peak in the predominantly Shia’a district of Baalbeck-Hermel at 474% and its lowest point in the predominantly Maronite district of Batroun at 102%. It may be said that the districts with Muslim majorities recorded the highest increases in the number of voters, as we will elaborate later. 

















 
















  The new divisions assigned for the districts of Beirut in 2009 differed from the 1960s partitions and our article has abided by the former in counting the number of voters.
    - Beirut 1: Ashrafieh, Rmeil, Saifi    
    - Beirut 1 previously: Ashrafieh, Mdawwar, Rmeil, Saifi, Marfaa, Mina Hosn
    - Beirut 2: Bashoura, Mdawwar, Marfaa
    - Beirut 2 previously: Bashoura, Zqaq Blat, Ain Mraisseh
    - Beirut 3: Mazraa, Msaytbeh, Ras Beirut, Ain Mraiseh, Mina Hosn , Zqaq Blat
    - Beirut 3 previously: Mazraa, Msatbeh, Ras Beirut.
  Compared to the number of Christian voters, the number of Muslim voters has increased drastically between 1960 and 2014. However, since no data is available on the voter records before 1996, we have used the year 1996 as our baseline. As illustrated in Table 2, Muslim voters accounted for 55.5% of the total voters in 1996 while Christian voters made up 44.3%. In 2013, the percentage of Muslim voters grew to 62.1% compared to 37.8% for Christian voters.