Ahead of the 2009 polls the two main contenders the March 8 and the March 14 alliances, had agreed in Doha to divide the Beirut II seats between them.[3][4][5][6] Per the Doha Agreement the opposition would get the Shia seat, the majority the Sunni seat and the Armenian seat would be split between the two.[7] At the time of the 2009 elections the constituency had 101,787 registered voters, out of whom 27,787 cast their votes.[8] Its 27.3% electoral participation was the lowest amongst the constituencies around the country (the national average was 50.7%).[1] There were 450 invalid ballots and 315 blank votes.[8] Voting in Beirut II was largely calm.[9]
Two Armenian Orthodox candidates were elected unopposed; Sebouh Kalpakian and Arthur Nazarian.[8] Kalpakian had served as the chairman of the Lebanon Executive Board of the Hunchnak Party for thirteen years. He had left this position and emigrated to Australia, but ahead of the 2009 polls he returned to Lebanon to run for parliament.[10] Nazarian was the candidate of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation ('Tashnaqs').[11] The Ministry of Interior and Municipalities declared Kalpakian and Nazarian elected unopposed on April 22, 2009.[12]
For the Shia seat there were two candidates; Hani Kobeissy and Abbas Yaghi.[8] The March 14 alliance did not field any Shia candidate, as per the agreement between the Amal Movement and Future Movement in Doha.[9] On April 22, 2009, the Hizbullah candidate and incumbent parliamentarian Amin Sherri officially withdrew from the race, in favour of the Amal candidate Kobeissy.[13] According to media sources this move was done on behalf of Hizbullah in order to ease tensions between Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement over candidatures in Jezzine and Baabda.[14][15] In the end Kobeissy won the seat with a wide margin, obtaining 15,126 votes against 195 for Yaghi.[8]
The main contenders for the Sunni seat were Nouhad Machnouk of the Future Movement and Adnan Arakji from the March 8 alliance.[8][7][9] Although the March 8 and March 14 alliances had agreed in Doha that the Sunni seat would go to the March 14 alliance Arakji refused to step down from the race, causing a degree of controversy.[9] Initially Hizbullah had declared that it would support neither Machnouk nor Arakji. But just a few days ahead of the polls the party declared that it would call for a vote for Machnouk, as per the Doha Agreement. According to the newspaper al-Hayat, the shift in the Hizbullah position came after pressure from the Qatari Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.[16] Machnouk won the seat with a wide margin obtaining 16,583 votes, Adnan Arakji finishing second with 8,071 votes, Mohieddine Majbour obtained 231 votes and Jalal Kebrit a mere 10 votes.[8]
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