This policy brief explores how—despite widespread citizen frustration—the status quo prevailed. The brief will subject the above paradoxes to greater empirical scrutiny, with particular attention to the performance of new actors. It draws findings from an analysis of election results, participant observation of the campaign period, and focus group interviews conducted before and after the election. This brief also analyses how citizen perceptions of the new electoral law, the entrance of civil society lists and movements, party resource advantages, and extra-legal modes of manipulation contributed to the reproduction of Lebanon’s electoral status quo.