An electoral worker sits next to boxes as Lebanese await the official election results for the rest of the districts in Lebanon's parliamentary election, at the Justice Palace in Jdeideh, Lebanon May 16, 2022. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
BEIRUT — The turnout figures on a district by district level issued by the Interior Ministry yesterday appear to have been incorrect, calculations show. Results posted to the Interior Ministry’s official elections website yesterday under the heading “Details of calculating election results for 2022” showed 4,180,163 registered voters, 212,656 more registered voters than were released as part of the final voter lists before the election. This equates to an overall turnout of 46.69 percent.
L’Orient Today raised the issue of the number of registered voters with the ministry and election observers yesterday. Today, its website has been updated with new numbers that correspond with those in the final voter list, raising the overall turnout to 49.19 percent. This is on par with the 2018 turnout figure of 49.7 percent, upending the narrative that has been developing of an election with far lower turnout than previous ones.
In a statement, a Interior Ministry spokesperson acknowledged that the results had been updated "after checking the records of the heads of the polling stations" and said that the correct numbers are "as you see them now, updated."
The following table gives the number of registered voters and the number of votes per district, as per the updated “Details of calculating election results for 2022.” Turnout is calculated as (votes/voters)*100.
