And good point about “rounds”.

Steven (or anyone else), can you point me to any really detailed description of how these elections work? I’ve been rather mystified by the partial descriptions I have seen. But the upshot seems to be that the outcome is largely fixed ahead of time–in two senses. One, there is a literally fixed share of seats for each of the recoognized “confessions.” And second, the various parties strike pre-election deals that tend to leave very few seats really competitive on election day. Or rather election days.

That last part is odd, too. This is a rolling process over several days and weeks.

Small point. I wish reporting on the Lebanese elections would stop speaking of multiple “rounds” of voting. To me rounds means separate stages leading to the final outcome in a given seat or set of seats (i.e. French elections). That is not what is happening here. These are simply regions voting (once each) on seaprate dates. Maybe “phases” would be better?

Aoun is one of the thugs (note: “one of the”, not “the”) that pushed Lebanon into the bloody civil war that precipitated a call from Arab states and acquiescence other players for Syrian invasion. His long time sparring partner, Walid Jumblatt was another. Now these bloody would-be dictators get another turn at building the country they tried so hard to destroy.

So now the country is divided between Christians (the people with the money), Druze (the people with the best militias), and Hezbollah (the people with the most willing martyrs). Sounds like fun.

Steven, a suggestion for this week’s Friday Fun Meme — Give your list of conditions to strangle democracy and return a people to civil war. My entry is now in.