Why were Lebanon’s president, prime minister, and parliamentary speaker assigned to different religious communities?

The assignment of Lebanon’s top political offices to specific religious communities is rooted in the Lebanese National Pact of 1943, a power-sharing arrangement designed to balance the interests of the country's diverse religious groups.1

Under this unwritten convention, the distribution of the three highest offices is as follows:
* President: Must be a Maronite Christian.12
* Prime Minister: Must be a Sunni Muslim.12
* Speaker of the National Assembly: Must be a Shiʿi Muslim.12

This system, known as confessionalism, was intended to ensure representation for Lebanon's varied religious communities, as religion and government have been deeply and formally intertwined in the country since its independence. While the Taif Accord of 1989 sought to eventually move toward a non-sectarian system, these offices remain central to the political structure of Lebanon’s Second Republic, where governance often relies on elite confessional bargaining rather than traditional party politics.342