With Parliament stalled and deadlines closing in, Lebanon’s government is moving ahead with elections under the existing law, forcing expatriate voting into the spotlight amid political deadlock.
How will the 16th district be applied?
At a time when Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri is handling the electoral deadline as though the Parliament’s rules of procedure were a personal asset he manages according to his own political rhythm (resulting in Parliament not convening to discuss an urgent repeat bill submitted by 67 MPs, nor a draft law approved by the government aimed at amending the expatriate voting clause in the electoral law), the government has found itself confronted with the pressure of binding legal deadlines. The Council of Ministers is left with only one option: to deal with the law currently in force as it stands, even though it is fully convinced of the 2 reforms included in its own draft law, which it considers essential: allowing expatriates to vote for all 128 MPs within Lebanon, with each voter casting a ballot in their original electoral district, and approving the “mega-center” to facilitate the electoral process inside Lebanon and ensure greater freedom for voters.
The current electoral law obliges the Minister of Interior and Municipalities to call the electoral bodies no later than 90 days before election day. Since Parliament’s term ends on 21 May, and taking into account the Hajj season during that period, the expected election date falls between 3 May and 10 May. This means that the call to the electoral bodies must be issued by 3 February in order for the ministry to remain comfortably within the legal deadlines.
This call must include previously registered non-resident voters. Here, however, the question arises: under which voting formula?
Article 123 of the electoral law mandates the formation of a technical committee to establish the mechanism for implementing expatriate voting, since the 16th district (the expatriates’ district) still lacks implementing decrees. This has indeed taken place: the committee has met and examined several scenarios, and it is expected to submit a technical report containing more than one proposal, with no final formula adopted to date.
According to information obtained by “Nida Al Watan,” the proposals under consideration include the following:
Expatriates would be treated as a single electoral district, similar to a minor district within Lebanon, such as Metn, Baabda or Beirut I, with 6 seats allocated to expatriates.
Candidates may be either expatriates or residents. Just as a resident of Beirut may run in the Baabda district, for example, a resident of district 15 may run in district 16 (the expatriates’ district). Lists, each comprising up to 6 candidates, would then compete within different political alliances, with voters selecting one list and casting one preferential vote.
Regarding the preferential vote, 2 proposals have been identified by “Nidaa Al Watan:”
The first is based on sectarian allocation by continent: Europe would be represented by a Maronite, North America by a Greek Orthodox, Latin America by a Catholic, Africa by a Shiite, Asia by a Sunni and Australia by a Druze.
Accordingly, an expatriate voter in Asia, for example, would choose a list that represents them politically, but their preferential vote would have to go to a Sunni candidate, even if the voter does not belong to that sect. Conversely, a Sunni voter in Europe would grant their preferential vote to a Maronite candidate, simply because the seat allocated to Europe is the Maronite seat.
This arrangement is based on political understandings or party alliances that ensure coordination of candidacies across continents, and it also allows a given party to nominate candidates from different sects.
The second proposal, however, allows expatriates to retain the right to grant their preferential vote to any candidate, regardless of the candidate’s sect or the continent in which the voter resides, on the basis that the 6 MPs represent the expatriate community across all continents, not a specific one.
The next phase: government decrees or parliamentary legislation?
These proposals are not final and inherently raise technical and political questions, observations and criticisms. Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar told “Nidaa Al Watan” that his primary objective is to adhere to legal deadlines and that he is undertaking all necessary measures to hold the elections on time. He stressed that “the final decision regarding the proposal I will submit, based on the technical committee’s report, will rest with the Council of Ministers collectively, whether to issue the implementing decrees or to consider that these details require legislation by Parliament.”
Al-Hajjar also confirmed that funding for the elections has been secured, as indicated in his discussions with the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee, which will allocate additional appropriations to the governorates, alongside anticipated support from donor entities.
Thus, amid the continued paralysis of Parliament regarding any amendment or reform related to the electoral law, the government has found itself compelled to act within the confines of the law in force; not out of full conviction in its soundness, but because time no longer allows the luxury of waiting. The coming days will reveal whether the 16th district will become a new electoral reality, or whether the political consensus required to make this process succeed has yet to mature. In the latter case, political forces will have to agree on a clear alternative, one that has not yet taken shape, raising question marks over the country’s ability to hold elections on schedule, despite the insistence of the 3 presidents that the electoral deadline will not be postponed.
