National Pact

The National Pact was an unwritten political agreement reached in the summer of 1943 between Lebanese president Bechara El Khoury and prime minister Riad Al Solh that established Lebanon as an independent multiconfessional state after French rule. It fixed a system of confessional power sharing under which the presidency was reserved for a Maronite Christian, the premiership for a Sunni Muslim and the speakership of parliament for a Shia Muslim, with parliamentary seats divided six to five between Christians and Muslims. The ratios were drawn from a contested 1932 census that had shown a Christian majority, and the pact's unwritten allocation of offices by sect shaped Lebanese governance for decades afterward.