BASSIL: "More than 85,000 expats register to vote"

Nov. 21, 2017

BEIRUT: More than 85,000 Lebanese expatriates registered to vote from overseas in next year’s parliamentary elections, hours before the deadline to apply, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said Monday.

At a news conference at the Foreign Ministry ahead of the cutoff, Bassil called on all Lebanese residents to “pick up the phone and call your relatives abroad” to encourage them to register.

Bassil said that any extension to the application window would be discussed at a later date.

“Despite an agreement within the [electoral committee] to extend the deadline, it is obvious that there is a political [agenda] behind not extending it,” he said.

In October, the Foreign Ministry launched the first website for eligible overseas voters to register for elections, scheduled for spring 2018.

“This is the first time this mechanism is being used in Lebanon and it is fast and easy,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement at the time of the launch.

Completed applications submitted with the required documentation through the website were then forwarded on to the Interior Ministry for validation.

The Lebanese diaspora has long been unable to vote from abroad.

Under the new electoral law, the ministry will designate overseas polling stations, the location of which will be agreed at a later time.