An election worker casts his ballot for the 2022 parliamentary elections at the serail of Saida on May 12, 2022. (Credit: L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The voting process for the 14,950 workers and clerks managing Lebanon’s 2022 parliamentary elections started Thursday morning in all districts. The ballot boxes were opened in the presence of the European Union Election Observation Mission and the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections amid security procedures from the army and the Internal Security Forces, the National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• During this second phase of the parliamentary elections, Halba’s serail witnessed heavy turnout in the four ballot boxes allocated to that site. The number of workers voting in Akkar is 1,888, the largest number among the districts of Lebanon. So far, 12 percent of the voters have cast their ballots.
• An early opening was observed for a number of employees who rushed to the polls directly at 7 a.m., as ballot boxes began to be filled in the presence of delegates from the eight electoral lists in the North I district, our correspondent reported.
• Ballot boxes were opened for workers in the serials of Saida, Nabatieh and Jezzine, Sour, Marjayoun and Bint Jbeil, our correspondents report.
• In Saida, 733 workers are expected to vote, while in Jezzine the number is 230. In Marjayoun 529, and Nabatieh 1071, according to our correspondents. In Beirut II the number of election workers voting is 700, while in Beirut I there are only 70.
• South Lebanon Governor Mansour Daou stressed during his follow-up to the progress of the electoral process that “it is conducted on a normal basis … we worked to provide various things that would ensure a comfortable atmosphere for the voters to exercise their national right to vote under democratic conditions without any obstacles.”