In 1998, the first municipal council elections to be held since 1963 took place across most of Lebanon, with the exception of some isolated towns and occupied villages in the South that voted in the year 2001. With the new round of elections one year away, Ii explores the changes in municipality setup, reforms and the distribution of proceeds from the Independent Municipality Fund.

Number of municipalities

The number of towns and villages in Lebanon totals 1,396, as laid down in the Administrative Reform Law issued through Decree No. 116/1959 (12 June 1959). Of that number, 660 communities are not represented by municipal councils.

The municipalities are distributed among the Lebanese mohafazat as follows:

• Mount Lebanon: 274 municipalities
• North Lebanon: 173 municipalities
• Bekaa: 124 municipalities
• South Lebanon: 80 municipalities
• Nabatieh: 84 municipalities
• Beirut: Municipality of Beirut

Members of the Municipal Council

According to Article 24 of Law No. 665 (29 December 1997), the number of council members per municipality is based on the registered inhabitants of that municipality, as follows:

• 2000 or less: 9 members
• 2,001 – 4,000 : 12 members
• 4,001 – 12,000: 15 members
• 12,001 – 24,000: 18 members
• Over 24,000: 21 members
• Beirut and Tripoli: 24 members each

Based on those guidelines, there are now 8,461 municipality members. They are distributed among the municipalities by caza as shown in Table 2.

Newly established municipalities

Between 1998 - 2002, 27 municipalities have been created and are distributed according to Table 1 below.

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