How Lebanon shares power between religious communities and state institutions

A parliamentary system with religious power-sharing

Lebanon’s constitution, promulgated on 23 May 1926, establishes a parliamentary democratic republic. Alongside guarantees of equal rights and a division of state powers, Lebanon’s political system gives religious communities a role in representation and public office, a structure the Law Library of Congress describes as confessional.

The three highest political offices are allocated by religious affiliation: the president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliamentary speaker a Shia Muslim, according to the Congressional Research Service’s January 2025 report. The service says Lebanon has held no formal census since 1932.

What parliament does

The Chamber of Deputies is Lebanon’s sole legislative chamber, with 128 members elected for four years, according to the Law Library of Congress and the Lebanese investment authority. It passes legislation, chooses the president and scrutinises the government. Deputies can initiate a question of no confidence.

Article 24 of the constitution divides parliamentary representation equally between Muslims and Christians pending an electoral law without confessional allocation. Within that arrangement, seats are distributed proportionally among religious groups and geographic regions. Article 21 sets voting eligibility at 21, subject to electoral-law requirements.

The president and the cabinet

The president is head of state and represents national unity. Under Article 49, parliament chooses the president through a secret vote: election requires two-thirds support in the first round and an absolute majority in later rounds. A presidential mandate lasts six years.

The president names a prime minister following binding consultations with deputies and consultation with the speaker. Appointment of the cabinet requires agreement between the president and prime minister. Executive authority belongs to the Council of Ministers; the president can chair its meetings but cannot vote.

How Taif changed the balance

The United Nations describes the 1989 Taif Accords as an effort to end Lebanon’s civil war. They envisaged moving authority from the presidency toward a cabinet divided equally between Christians and Muslims, alongside the dissolution and disarmament of militias, both Lebanese and non-Lebanese.

Constitutional amendments dated 21 September 1990 placed executive power with the cabinet and established Christian-Muslim parity in parliament. They also provided for constitutional review and electoral-dispute adjudication by a Constitutional Council.

The constitutional goal of moving beyond confessionalism

The constitution makes ending political confessionalism a national objective to be pursued in stages. Transitional provisions published by the Constitutional Council envisage a president-led national committee and parliamentary measures toward that goal. They also provide for fair religious representation in cabinet during the transition.

Article 22 links a future Senate to the election of a Chamber of Deputies without confessional allocation. That Senate would represent religious communities and address major national questions. This is a constitutional reform framework, not a description of the existing single-chamber parliament.

A timeline of recent deadlock

According to the Congressional Research Service, the May 2022 elections left neither major coalition-linked grouping with a clear majority and put the government into caretaker status. No new cabinet was agreed before Michel Aoun’s presidency ended that October. Twelve presidential ballots failed between October 2022 and June 2023.

As of January 2025, parliament had ended more than two years of presidential deadlock by electing army chief Joseph Aoun with 99 votes out of 128, the service reported. Aoun subsequently appointed Nawaf Salam prime minister after a majority of deputies endorsed him.