In Baalbeck, a few hours after the ballot boxes were closed and the process of counting votes began on Sunday, May 8, figures started to surface suggesting that the Development and Loyalty List backed by the Amal Movement, Hezbollah and the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects had won all 21 seats in the city’s municipal council, thus out-voting Baalback Madinati- the rival list supported by the Future Movement, the Islamic Jama’a and a number of families- by a narrow margin of 150 votes. The results triggered several comments and analyses that underlined the decline in Hezbollah’s popularity in the city of the sun and the local dissent held to undermine the dominance it exercises over its decisions. However, the assiduous examination of the official results proved otherwise as it turned out that the Development and Loyalty List had captured 55.2% of the total vote against 35.2% for Baalbeck Madinati.
There were also three independent candidates running in Baalbeck. The first, Suleiman Ramadan, obtained 1,069 votes while Zakariya Solh and Abbas Othman gained 377 and 102 votes respectively.
In 2010, the Development and Loyalty List won in its entirety, amassing an average of 6,988 votes that constituted 55.2% of the electorate. Baalbeck Madinati scored an average of 4,464 votes (35.2%), which put the difference at 2,524 votes. The least vote gainer on the winning list (6,499 votes) defeated the top scorer (4,968 votes) on the losing list by 1,531 votes.
in 2016, the difference between the two major two lists contesting the elections was 2,346 votes while 1,007 votes separated between the top vote gainer on Baalback Madinati list and the lowest scorer on the Development and Loyalty List
Although the variance between the two major rivals decreased by roughly 178 votes compared to that in 2010, it nevertheless remained fairly high (2,346 votes) thus refuting all preliminary predictions about a narrow win.
