Beirut V – Minet El Hosn was an electoral district in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, used in the 1953 parliamentary election. The electoral district covered three neighbourhoods of Beirut and elected a

Minorities The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

parliamentarian.

Joseph Chader Joseph Chader (‎; 1907 – March 28, 1977) was a Lebanese politician. He was a Member of Parliament between 1951 and 1977, and served as deputy speaker at times. In 1958 he became the first Armenian government minister in Lebanon. He served ...

of the

Kataeb Party The Kataeb Party (), officially the Kataeb Party – Lebanese Social Democratic Party ( '), also known as the Phalangist Party, is a right-wing Christian political party in Lebanon founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936. The party and its parami ...

was elected from the district in 1953.

New election law

The 1953 election was the first parliamentary election in Lebanon with a new electoral system which allowed candidates to win with a plurality of votes, rather than requiring a second round. Female universal suffrage was introduced whilst voting was made compulsory for men, as per the November 1952 Election Law. Moreover, the number of seats in the parliament was reduced from 77 to 44. Most of the electoral districts now elected only a single parliamentarian, rather than the usual system in Lebanon where several parliamentarians are elected from a larger district. The November 1952 Election Law had also abolished the separate seat for

Armenian Catholic Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

s. Beirut V - Minet el Hosn covered three neighbourhoods (''quartiers'') of the capital Beirut; Minet El Hosn, Dar Mreisse and

Port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

. The district elected a single parliamentarian, belonging to Minorities. The district had 13,890 registered voters.Messerlian, Zaven. ''Armenian Participation in the Lebanese Legislative Elections 1934–2009''. Beirut: Haigazian University Press, 2014. pp. 119-120, 129-130, 135

Candidates in 1953 election

The contenders for the Beirut V seat were Joseph Chader, Edmond Rabbath, Farid Jubran, Chafic Nassif and Jemil Attié.

Joseph Chader

Chader was the vice chairman of the Kataeb Party. He had won the Armenian Catholic seat in the 1951 parliamentary election. As the Kataeb Party had suffered a backlash in the 1951 election, it only fielded two candidates in 1953, Chader and Maurice Gemayel in Beirut II (

Achrafieh Achrafieh () is an upper-class area in eastern Beirut, Lebanon. In strictly administrative terms, the name refers to a sector (''secteur'') centred on Sassine Square, the highest point in the city, as well as a broader quarter (''quartier''). In p ...

- Rmeil-

Saifi The System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) is commonly used as a reliability index by electric power utilities. This index measures the average number of times that a system customer experiences an outage during the year or during a g ...

). Chader had the support from a large part of the Jewish community, which tended to support the Kataeb Party.

Edmond Rabbath

Rabbath was the candidate of the National Call Party. Born in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

and educated at the Sorbonne in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, he had been one of the architects of the 1928 Syrian constitution. He was a prominent Syrian nationalist. Rabbath had been a leading figure in the National Bloc in Syria in the 1930s. Before the 1953 election he had become a Lebanese citizen. His candidature was supported by the Syriac Catholic Patriarch

Ignatius Gabriel I Tappouni Mar Ignatius Gabriel I Tappouni (Arabic: جبرائيل تبّوني, ) (3 November 1879 – 29 January 1968) was a leading prelate of the Syriac Catholic Church. He served as Patriarch of Antioch from 1929 to 1968, and was elevated to the cardi ...

Chafic Nassif

Nassif had been one of the founders of the Kataeb Party. But he left the party and became a follower of

Camille Chamoun Camille Nimr Chamoun (, ; 3 April 19007 August 1987) was a Lebanese politician who served as the 2nd president of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958. He was one of the country's main Christian leaders during most of the Lebanese Civil War. Early yea ...

. He was a lawyer by profession.

Farid Jubran

Jubran, a

Latin Catholic The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 ''sui iuris'' churches in full communion w ...

, was one of the co-founders of the

Progressive Socialist Party The Progressive Socialist Party () is a Lebanese political party. Its confessional base is in the Druze sect and its regional base is in Mount Lebanon Governorate, especially the Chouf District. Founded by Kamal Jumblatt in 1949, the party ...

Voting

Chader won the seat, obtaining 2,081 votes (40.9%). Rabbath got 1,922 votes (37.8%), Nassif 1,097 votes (21.6%), Jubran 646 votes (12.7%) and Attié 55 votes (1.1%). 41.8% of the registered voters cast their votes. In the subsequent 1957 parliamentary election, multi-member electoral districts were reintroduced. The neighbourhoods of the 1953 Beirut V district were included in the Muslim-dominated second district of Beirut.

References

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