Lebanon’s capital on Sunday will hold its first elections
since a months-long trash crisis left mountains of garbage festering in
the streets, with an outsider group of candidates challenging a
political establishment widely seen as corrupt and incompetent.

Beirut Madinati, Arabic for “Beirut, My City,” has vowed to clean up the city’s streets – and its politics. “We
will go to the polls and throw out the corrupt politicians,” declared
list leader Ibrahim Mneihmneh, a 40-year-old architect, at a recent
rally attended by hundreds of people. “We will no longer whine about the
trash, traffic, or corruption.”

Polling stations for the
municipal election will be open on Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (0400
GMT to 1600 GMT). Results are expected as early as Monday.

Madinati
hopes to channel the energy of the “You Stink” protest movement, which
emerged in response to the trash crisis and went on to challenge the
political class that has governed Lebanon since the end of its 1975-1990
civil war.

The leaders behind the “You Stink” movement, which
brought thousands of protesters into the streets at the height of the
trash crisis, have not formally endorsed Madinati but have attended its
rallies.

Since the end of the war, Lebanon has been governed by a
power-sharing arrangement among political blocs – many led by former
warlords – that represent its various religious sects. That has led to
widespread patronage and corruption, and more recently to the breakdown
of public services.

The trash crisis began last summer when the
government closed the city’s main landfill without agreeing on a
replacement. For eight months trash piled up across the city. An
agreement was reached in March to open a new disposal facility, but
critics cast it as simply another backroom deal that failed to address
the root of the problem.

And the stench grew even worse in April, as excavators dismantled the piles of garbage to carry it out of the city.

“When
you talk about Beirut, you say she’s a beautiful woman,” said the
well-known Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, who is a candidate on the
Madinati list. “Unfortunately, this is not what I’m seeing now.”

The
Madinati list is made up of independent technocrats who have reached
out to voters through town hall-style meetings, rallies and fundraisers.
But many wonder if they can succeed in a system dominated by lifelong
politicians.

“It’s like in the village,” said Mohammad Hamza, a
Beirut barber. “The outsiders win the elections, and for the next six
years nothing gets done, because the political bosses block everything.”