The atmosphere could hardly be more different. At this time last year, the country was awash in party flags, election advertisements and acrimonious language in advance of the June parliamentary elections. Today, however, on the eve of the first round of municipal elections, consensus is the buzzword.

On the streets of Beirut, it is more common to see the flags of Argentina, Brazil or Germany flying from balconies and car windows as the World Cup approaches than it is to see Future Movement, Lebanese Forces or Free Patriotic Movement banners waving, even as polling begins on Sunday.

Several of the country’s top political parties – which analysts have argued do not even want municipal elections now – announced in recent  weeks that they will focus on compromise instead of contest during the polling.

If the prominent families and political parties in a municipality can agree on a list of council members, the list wins uncontested and no election takes place. On Tuesday, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud announced that nearly 20 percent of the 313 municipalities in Mount Lebanon – the first governorate to vote – will not hold polls as unity deals were hammered out.

Some districts that proved tough electoral fights during the parliamentary elections are not even being contested in municipal voting – like Saida, for example, where the prominent Hariri and Saad families agreed on a municipal council electoral list whose members will then elect a consensus mayor. 
 
In these localized contests, prominent families are often more important than political parties and the divisive logic of national elections fades away. If a prominent family in a given municipality is divided in terms of which national political party it supports, appeasing that family means forging consensus electoral lists.

Local loyalties are also important. In the Beirut suburb of Shiyyah, for example, the Amal Movement, Kataeb Party, Free Patriotic Movement and Lebanese Forces have allied to support a list that will re-elect incumbent mayor Edmond Gharious.

Gharious is an independent close to March 14 who unsuccessfully ran for parliament in 2009. While the political parties may have aspired to form dueling lists in Shiyyah, residential loyalties to Gharious likely prevented that, according to a source working on writing unity lists in a different district, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

“The considerations [for voters in Shiyyah] are different,” the source said. “[People think] the mayor has been nice to me, he gave me a permit, [for example]. You cannot spit in the soup. You cannot bite the hand that feeds you.”

Consensus, however, is not ironclad. In the coastal city of Jounieh, for example, Antoine Frem, scion of a long-dominant local family, emerged as an agreeable mayor, so bickering political parties agreed to a municipal council list that would vote for him.

Tuesday, however, Jounieh’s incumbent mayor, Juan Hobeich, announced that, with other city notables, he would field a rival list in the election. One political advertisement the new coalition created mocks consensus and claims backing by the Virgin Mary.

Jounieh, of course, is not alone, as consensus is still proving elusive in several other municipalities.