The first signs of democratic life are returning to Lebanon following the municipal elections that have been held in May 2016. During a time of political crisis which is partly caused by the spill-over from Syria’s civil war, Lebanon has been suffering from a Presidential vacancy since 2014 and multiple postponements of Parliamentary elections since May 2013 until at least June 2017. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Interior, 5,976 candidates were running for seats in 273 municipal councils and 1,553 candidates ran for 740 mayoral seats. The municipal elections were organized for four weeks in May with the last one ending on the 29th of May in the North Lebanon and Akkar regions. The results of the elections will be posted as soon as they are made available.

On 24 May 2015, Rachid Ghannouchi, the newly chosen leader of Ennahda, an Islamist political party, has announced he would the end of political Islam of his party. Instead, he wants his party to embrace democracy and move towards Islamic democracy, similar to Christian democracy. Political and religious activities are to be separated in the future. It means a radical change of direction of Ennahda, that had lost the parliamentary elections in 2014 and became second.

On 5 May 2016, Ahmet Davutoglu has stepped down as Prime Minister of Turkey, following talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The move is considered as a consolidation of power by Erdogan, who has been extending his authoritarian rule over the years. The Prime Minister was appointed by Erdogan back in 2014, but lost favor of the President as he increasingly acted more autonomous. Constitutionally, the Prime Minister is supposed to be the most powerful figure as in most parliamentary democracies. The President however seems to wield all power in his AKP party and the country, despite his more ceremonial role. Earlier the President had also pushed for new elections, back in November 2015, after the absolute majority of his party was narrowly lost due to the rise of the Kurdish Party. A crackdown on the party followed, and a new election re-confirmed an absolute majority for the Islamist AKP party of Erdogan. The media is also been increasingly controlled by the government, as earlier on 5 March 2016 one of the few remaining critical newspapers "Zaman" was taken over.

On the 29th of April 2016, second round of the Parliamentary elections were held in Iran to elect members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly for the 10th parliamentary election in the Islamic Republic era. This round took place only for the few constituencies where candidates had failed to obtain the required minimum 25 percent of votes. The elected MPs will serve from May 2016 to May 2020. About17 million citizens were eligible to vote on Friday and the event was held in 21 provinces, but not in Teheran, as reformists won all of the capital's 30 seats in the first round.  Reformist and moderate politicians allied with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani won most seats in this second-round, local media reported Saturday. Results show that of the 68 seats being contested, 33 had gone to the pro-Rouhani List of Hope (31 reformists and 2 moderates), while the conservatives gained only 21 more MPs. The remaining 14 seats went to independents. Thus the final results are a total of 119 seats swept by the reformist List of Hope, led by Mohammad Reza Aref,  then comes the conservative Principlists Grand Coalition under the leader Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel with 84 seats. The remaining seats go to minor independant lists.

After Prime Minster Abadi presented a new technocrat cabinet on the 31st of March, the Iraqi Parliament is blocking the presentation of a new cabinet lineup as they claim it to be either invalid or treachery to the state. Abadi has been desperately trying to steer his country out of political turmoil as protestors increasingly gather outside the government offices under the lead of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Abadi is pushing to replace party-affiliated ministers with technocrats at the request of demonstrators in the strive to improve the critical situation of the country by temporarily putting professionals, experts and academics in power. Analysts claim the current political crisis to be the outcome of a failing sectarian quota system, half-solutions to Iraq’s chronic problems and failure to address critical issues such as corruption, a worsening economic situation and increased conflict within the country. While Prime Minister Abadi is backed by the international community, he has few allies inside Iraq’s political sphere and people are increasingly opting for dissolving the Parliament and holding fresh elections.

Saudi Arabia has approved the National Transformation programme, a challenging strategy to move the kingdom’s economy beyond oil, with the intention of proceeding to diversification, privatisation of substantial state assets such as the energy giant Aramco, tax increases and spending cuts. King Salman bin Abdulaziz assured the cabinet backing for the Saudi Vision 2030 plan in a short announcement on television on Monday, in which he enjoined his subjects to cooperate together to ensure future success. Mohammed bin Salman, the king’s son and deputy crown prince, gave details of the economic reforms he’s mostly in charge of. It includes the creation of a 2tn dollars sovereign wealth fund, and at the same time tactical economic reforms. Bin Salman confirmed that the kingdom would sell approximately 5% of Aramco, which will become a holding company with subsidiaries listed through an initial public offering. According to him, the country could live without oil by 2020.