A staff member in charge of the Lebanese legislative elections in an office in Beirut on May 15, 2022. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — The French Foreign Ministry welcomed on Wednesday the on-time holding of the Lebanese parliamentary elections on Sunday, and called on Lebanese officials to “appoint without delay” a prime minister and “form a new government.”
Here’s what we know:
• “France welcomes the holding of this deadline on the scheduled date,” said French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll, in a press release. She continued, saying that France “deplores the incidents and irregularities noted by the European Union Election Observation Mission and hopes that all the light can be shed on this matter.”
• The EU mission said Tuesday that despite the successful holding of the elections, the process had been “marred by widespread practices of vote-buying, clientelism and corruption... affecting equal opportunities and undermining voters' choice.” Since Sunday, several associations and internet users have denounced the misappropriation of votes, bad counts and other offenses that occurred during the vote.
• Regarding the next political milestones in Lebanon, France encouraged “all Lebanese leaders to appoint a prime minister without delay and to form a new government in order to take the necessary measures for the recovery of the country.”