Chamber:
	Majlis Al-Nuwwab
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	23 August 1992 30 August 1992 6 September 1992
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held to renew all the seats of the Chamber of Deputies on the expiry of the members’ term of office. Their mandate had previously been extended several times.
Background and outcome of elections:
	The 1992 general elections were the first since April 1972. Since then, because of the civil war which had plagued the country since 1975, disorder and violence had made new polling impossible, and the Deputies’ mandates had been extended several times. The 1992 poll was held in accordance with the 1989 Taif (Saudi Arabia) agreement and under the July 1992 Electoral Law, which increased the number of parliamentary seats from 108 to 128, to be equally shared by Christians and Moslem Deputies. The election dates were set on 24 July. Voting was scheduled for three consecutive Sundays, covering in turn the northern and eastern parts of the country, the centre and finally the south. Lebanon’s right-wing Christian organizations objected to these plans, calling for a prior withdrawal of troops by Syria, which had entered the country under a peace-keeping mandate in the early days of the civil war. Absent such departure, the elections would be manipulated by Syria, the Christians claimed. The resulting Christian boycott, which excluded some 35% of the electorate, notably by the Phalangist (al-Kataeb) Party, left as leading contenders the pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim Hezbollah (Party of God) and the more secular, pro-Syrian Shia Muslim Amal (Hope) group, led by Mr. Nabih Berri. A central campaign issue related to the country’s economic ills. In the first round of voting on 23 August, 265 candidates vied for 51 seats. It was followed by widespread charges of ballot-rigging. After the third round (6 September), contested by 127 candidates for 23 seats, a total of 123 Deputies had been elected (the remaining five were chosen on 11 October). The overall results gave the Northern Bloc the largest number of Deputies. Voter turnout, although higher in the third round, averaged less than 30%. Only 17 of the elected Deputies were members of the previous Parliament, and none of the 64 Christians had formal ties to the Phalangists. On 20 October, Mr. Berri was elected to succeed Mr. Hussein Husseini, who resigned on 24 August, as Speaker of the National Assembly. Two days later, Mr. Rafiq al-Hariri was appointed Prime Minister by President of the Republic Elias Hrawi. His Cabinet was formally named on 31 October.

STATISTICS

Round no 1 : Elections results
Number of registered electors	1,822,890
Voters	446,302 (24.48%)

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total
Northern Bloc	21
National Struggle Bloc	19
Loyalty to Resistance Bloc	12
Walid Joumblatt Bloc	12
Freedom and Change Bloc	10
Armenian Bloc	6
Syrian People’s Party	6
Bekaa-South Bloc	4
Second Bloc of Zahlé	4
Zahlé Bloc	3
Jbeil Bloc	3
Farès Boueiz Bloc	3
Islamic Bloc	3
Aley Bloc	2
Michel Murr Bloc	2
National Pact	2
Party of the Future	2
Independents	14

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	125
Women:	3

Distribution of seats according to profession:
Lawyers	36
Businessmen	30
Doctors	13
Engineers	9
Economists	8
Others	32