SUNDAY morning is usually the only break in the hectic Beirut round of politics, commerce and partying. But on May 8th the streets were packed for a rare event: the chance to cast a ballot for an upstart player challenging the ruling dynasties for one of the Middle East’s most glittering municipal prizes.

Municipal elections would not usually cut much ice in a city that has seen it all; massacres, assassinations and a 15-year civil war. But in the six years since the previous municipal election in 2010 the country has reached boiling point. Since the last vote was cast, more than 1m Syrian refugees have crossed Lebanon’s border, and the economy is reeling. Sectarian squabbles have paralysed the parliament while crises mount outside: a reeking rubbish mountain, daily electricity and water outages, internet price-fixing and the quiet sell-off of some of the city’s last green spaces.

A sense of civic outrage has evolved into something new for Lebanese voters: secular, issue-based politics. For the first time since the civil war (1975-1990), an independent coalition of concerned citizens took on Lebanon’s old guard for control of Beirut’s municipal council.

Beirut Madinati (Beirut Is My City) is the political reinvention of last year’s “You Stink” movement, which fizzled out after failing to ensure the clearing of rubbish from the streets where it had piled up in a dispute over landfill sites. The movement, though, could reasonably claim success in the longer term, as a landfill site was eventually opened and the rubbish started to shift; and the protests helped give birth to the new party. This shift from street protest into Western-style democratic organisation has electrified Beirut’s disgruntled middle classes. Their modern campaign, financed through crowd-funding and individual donations, also attracted thousands of disenchanted millennials, both as volunteers and as first-time voters. “We got tired of complaining,” said Gilbert Doumit, one of Madinati’s architects.“Finally we moved from demand to execution.”

Beirut’s previous municipal election was a landslide for a cross-party alliance sponsored by Beirut’s favourite son, Saad al-Hariri, the billionaire leader of the Sunni “Future Movement” (and son of the assassinated former prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri). The Hariri-backed council, though, is corrupt and ineffective, even according to its own supporters. But a well-honed system of patronage and intimidation has discouraged credible opposition.

Mr Hariri fielded an expanded alliance for this election. His “Residents of Beirut” list united most of Beirut’s traditional political establishment, except for the powerful Shia militia-cum-party, Hizbullah, which did not compete, preferring to concentrate on other municipalities south of the city. Mr Hariri’s alliance adopted many of Beirut Madinati’s pledges: reduced pollution, affordable housing and financial transparency.

The final results gave Mr Hariri’s list 60% of the vote to Beirut Madinati’s 40%. But under Lebanon’s first-past-the-post electoral system it won all 24 municipal seats. Nevertheless, these tallies suggest a much closer fight than previous elections, in which opposition lists struggled to reach double figures. Beirut Madinati did particularly well in the Christian district of East Beirut, taking more than half the votes there. It also took more than a third of voters in Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods, Mr Hariri’s traditional turf.

Its impressive share may be enough to give it momentum to make next year’s general election a lot more interesting, though it will be up against sectarian parties with much more at stake than a city council. Beirut Madinati has pledged to fight on. “We’re sending a message,” said one supporter, marking his ballot for Beirut Madinati in a core Hariri stronghold. “Don’t insult our intelligence, don’t take us for granted.”