“The person who thinks they understand the Lebanese election system is the person who never will.” This bit of wisdom is often heard in coffee shops across Beirut as seasoned coffee-shop commentators attempt to explain to an influx of observers, diplomats and journalists the fascinating and often bewildering background on how, on June 7, Lebanon will choose its Parliament.

The Lebanese are proud of their democratic heritage: despite civil war and occupation, these will be the 15th multi-party elections since the country’s independence in 1943. The Lebanese electoral system is complex because it was designed to achieve a balance in ensuring parliamentary representation for the country’s different religious groups: all 128 seats are reserved for candidates from eleven specific confessions, with an equal division between Muslims and Christians. Many in Lebanon question whether confessional coexistence is best served by a system that entrenches sectarian and political differences, especially as the block vote system used means that whichever list in a district wins the highest number of votes wins all seats in that district. But this is not all that is unique and problematic about Lebanon’s elections.

Perhaps what’s most striking is the way in which the Lebanese vote: there is no standard ballot paper, so voters - who must be 21 years or older - are required to ‘write their own’ ballots or, more commonly, to use pre-prepared ballots that candidates supply to them outside polling stations. While this custom is justified by politicians as enabling last minute negotiation of lists, in practice it means that the ballots can easily be traced back to the voters who cast them.

Another concern with the system is that voters are only allowed to be registered ‘in their place of origin’ rather than where they live. Many of them must therefore travel some distance to vote. Further, there are no effective mechanisms for resolving electoral disputes. In fact, the only body with jurisdiction to settle challenges to the results - the Constitutional Council - is not currently functioning because of political deadlock over its composition.

Following the last elections in 2005, the Lebanese authorities established an independent commission to identify steps for electoral reform. Their subsequent report and draft law was eventually debated in Parliament in September 2008. Several important reforms were adopted including the fact that elections now have to be held on one day countrywide (rather than spread over four consecutive weeks), and new regulations on campaign finance and media coverage. However, many of the other proposals - including reform of the electoral system, the use of standard ballot papers and the establishment of an independent election commission - were not. Luckily, the appointment in July 2008 of H.E. Ziyad Baroud as Minister of Interior meant that responsibility for managing the elections was held by one of Lebanon’s leading advocates for electoral reform.

The current elections are proving to be Lebanon’s mostly hotly contested elections ever, despite the fact that in many districts, it is already certain which of the two main coalitions - known as March 14th and March 8th - will win. Intense campaigning is being targeted on the eight or so districts where voters are predominantly Christian and have no clear favorites to win. In contrast to the antiquated voting process, these campaigns are expensive and the usual poster-blitzes are supplemented by sophisticated internet campaigns, especially on Facebook and weblogs. Despite these novelties fueled by the new reforms, customary problems continue to be seen. There are many allegations of vote-buying and abuses of political financing. In just the first two weeks of the campaign, the body responsible for overseeing media, the Supervisory Commission for the Electoral campaign, reported 293 violations of media regulations.

While the election is still weeks ahead, many are already looking to ahead to the possible post-election scenarios and government formations. President Michel Sleiman has already indicated his commitment to reform of the electoral system - probably through the adoption of proportional representation - as well as improvements to the electoral process. In contrast to previous initiatives, these reforms seem to have the broad support of politicians who have realized the level of public dissatisfaction of the electoral system and condemnation by observers of outdated electoral practices. One of the first tasks of the new Parliament - which has already voted to reduce the voting age to 18 years for future elections - will be to establish a new law for the 2010 municipal elections-fingers remain crossed that this opportunity will be taken up to introduce real and sustainable reforms.

Richard Chambers is the IFES Country Director in Lebanon. Deen Sharp writes for http://lebelections.blogspot.com/