Foreign Ministry submits to govt. a draft law on expat voting
The Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that it has submitted to the government an urgent draft law for the abolition of Articles 112 and 122 of the electoral law, which limit the representation of expats to six newly-introduced seats.
If approved, the draft law would allow expats to choose their representatives in the 128-seat parliament according to their registered electoral districts.
The Ministry said its move came after it received over the past week a number of petitions and letters from a large number of Lebanese expats based in Berlin, Stockholm, Ottawa, Montreal, Washington, New York, Abuja, Madrid, London, Melbourne and Paris, who demanded the abolition of the two articles.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the May 2026 elections will be held on time but noted that “the remaining time does not allow for any amendment” of the electoral law.
Sixty-five MPs from the parliamentary majority have tried to discuss the amendment of the electoral law in parliament but Berri has blocked the attempt.
Expats had voted heavily in favor of the opposition, especially the so-called Change candidates, during the 2018 and 2022 parliamentary elections. Hezbollah and the Amal Movement argue that they do not enjoy the same campaigning freedom that the other parties enjoy abroad and have thus deemed the six newly-introduced seats as the lesser of two evils.
It is still unclear how the voting for the six seats will take place seeing as there is no clear mechanism distributing the seats on sects and continents. That can be resolved through executive decrees issued by the government or an amendment of the electoral law by parliament.
The Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and some Change and independent MPs are meanwhile calling for allowing expats to vote for the current 128 seats as happened in the 2018 and 2022 elections. The law had been amended back then to allow for the postponement of the introduction of the six new seats until 2026.
Source: Naharnet
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