Lebanon began municipal elections today in order to elect the regional councils that have recently dissolved over political in fighting. Lebanon has a very unique political structure in that it is a parliamentary democracy and its elections are run through a system called confessionalism; where certain positions and roles must be filled by candidates with particular religious affiliations. Some examples are that the president must be a Maronite Christian and the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim. This system is designed to balance the power between the different sects of Lebanon and reduce sectarian violence.
The second important news about Lebanon is that they have begun selling licenses to explore and develop their off-shore oil rights. The entire process that Lebanon has decided to follow in selling these licenses differs greatly in the level of transparency from many other developing nations with oil reserves. The overall plan for a application process followed by a semi-public bidding in May reduces the likely hood of corruption and secret deal making as well as increasing the transparency of the whole operation.
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