Lebanon goes to polls in March as economic meltdown spirals

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri holds a parliamentary session at UNESCO Palace in Beirut, Lebanon October 19, 2021. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon's parliament voted on Tuesday to hold legislative elections on March 27, giving Prime Minister Najib Mikati's government only a few months to try to secure an IMF recovery plan amid a deepening economic meltdown.

Lebanon's financial crisis, which the World Bank labelled one of the deepest depressions of modern history, had been compounded by political deadlock for over a year before Mikati put together a cabinet alongside President Michel Aoun.