1972 Lebanese general election

1972 Lebanese general election

←  1968 16–30 April 1972 1992  →
All 100 seats in the Parliament of Lebanon
Turnout	54.38% (4.81pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Camille Chamoun Pierre Gemayel Kamal Jumblatt Party National Liberal Kataeb PSP Leader's seat Chouf Beirut I Chouf Last election 8 9 5 Seats won 11 7 5 Seat change 3 2 0   Fourth party   Leader Melkon Eblighatian Party ARF Leader's seat Beirut I Last election 4 Seats before 4 Seats won 5 Seat change 1

General elections were held in Lebanon between 16 and 30 April 1972. ^[1] Independent candidates won a majority of seats, although most of them were considered members of various blocs. Voter turnout was 54.4%. ^[2]

Background

According to the 1960 constitution, the 99 seats were divided amongst ethnic and religious groups: ^[3]

Group	Seats
Maronite Christians	30
Sunni Muslims	20
Shi'ite Muslims	19
Greek Orthodox	11
Druze	6
Greek Catholics	6
Armenian Orthodox	4
Protestants	1
Armenian Catholics	1
Other	1

Results

See also: 1972 Lebanese general election in Beirut III

The majority of MPs – 63 of the 100 – were elected as independents. However, 52 of them were considered to be members of parliamentary blocs, including 9 in the Faranjiyyah bloc, 9 in the Skaff bloc, 7 in the Assad bloc (which also included the 2 Democratic Socialist Party MPs), 7 in the Karami bloc, 6 in the Hamada bloc, 4 in the Armenian Revolutionary Federation block (which also included the party's single MP), 4 in the Arslan bloc, 3 in the Jumblatt bloc (which also included the five Progressive Socialist Party MPs) and 3 in the Salam bloc. ^[4]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	National Liberal Party			11	+3
	Kataeb Party			7	–2
	Progressive Socialist Party			5	0
	National Bloc			4	–2
	Party of the Constitutional Union			3	0
	Lebanese Social Democratic Party			2	New
	Socialist Arab Lebanon Vanguard Party			1	New
	Democratic Party			1	New
	National Action Movement			1	0
	Armenian Revolutionary Federation			5	+1
	Union of Working People's Forces			1	New
	Social Democrat Hunchakian Party			0	New
	Armenian Democratic Liberal Party			0	New
	Syrian Social Nationalist Party			0	New
	Lebanese Communist Party			0	New
	Independents			63	+1
Total				104	+1
Total votes		721,022	–
Registered voters/turnout		1,326,016	54.38
Source: Nohlen et al.

References

1. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p183 ISBN   0-19-924958-X
2. Nohlen et al., p184
3. Lebanon Inter-Parliamentary Union
4. Nohlen et al., pp189–190 ISBN   0-19-924958-X