A Lebanese voter slips a ballot into a ballot box during the 2018 legislative elections. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
BEIRUT — The deadline for candidates to declare their intention to run in the May 15 parliamentary election drew to a close at midnight, with 1,043 having filed, an Interior Ministry spokeswoman told L'Orient Today.
Here's what we know:
• Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, following the filing deadline, said the 1,043 candidates registered represents 77 more than in 2018, the National News Agency reported.
• Of those who filed by the deadline, 155 were women, representing about 15 percent of the candidates. In 2018, 111 women candidates registered, representing about 11 percent of the total registered.
• The electoral lists for each district will not be finalized until April 4. If a candidate is not included on an electoral list by that date, the candidacy will be disqualified.
• In the 2018 elections, women represented 86 out of the 597 candidates who made it to the final lists, or about 14 percent, but in the end, women took six out of the 128 seats, or less than 5 percent.