Lihaqqi

Lihaqqi (Arabic: لِحَقّي) is a grassroots progressive political organization in Lebanon. Founded as a youth-led campaign for the 2018 parliamentary elections, it soon became a prominent anti-establishment movement that was among the groups that helped launch the 2019 protest movement. Lihaqqi's name means "for my rights" in Arabic, its primary slogan is "power to the people", and its internal structure is built around the principles of decentralization, horizontalism, and participatory democracy. The group does not subscribe to any particular ideological dogma, but its political discourse largely falls under the category of left-wing populism.

History

Electoral campaign (2017–2018)

Lihaqqi was founded in the electoral district of Chouf-Aley ahead of the 2018 parliamentary elections, forming a list with allies under the umbrella of Kulluna Watani. Although none of its candidates were elected to parliament, the list gathered just under 10,000 votes (9,987), which was one of the highest numbers of votes for an opposition list that year.

Rather than being formed around candidates who would then recruit volunteers, Lihaqqi electoral campaign was formed from the bottom-up, by expanding on the grassroots level through activist recruitment, followed by the selection of candidates through an internal democratic process. This process ensured that popularity and influence among members, rather than social status or resources, determined who should run. The bottom-up methodology was rejected by other opposition candidates in the district, which resulted in the rise of another list in the district that competed for opposition votes.

Political organization (2018–present)

After the end of the 2018 parliamentary elections, Lihaqqi held a general assembly conference to evaluate the results of the elections and determine the fate of the group, and the decision was to transform into a permanent political organization.