![Hacking Lebanese Politics #15 [Updated]: Elections, diaspora vote, candidate registration](https://s.lorientlejour.com/storage/attachments/1468/diasporahlp-1001_234757.jpg/r/1200/diasporahlp-1001_234757.jpg "Hacking Lebanese Politics #15 [Updated]: Elections, diaspora vote, candidate registration")
(Credit: Collage by Jaimee Lee Haddad)
As the country inches closer to D-Day — with voting set for May 10, 2026, for residents and May 1 to May 3 for expatriates (voter registration having closed in November), depending on their country of residence — the debate around the expat vote has intensified.
A majority of MPs pushed for an amendment allowing Lebanese living abroad to vote for one of the 128 seats in their home districts instead of six seats only dedicated to expats. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri continues to refuse to bring the proposal to a vote.
So will expats be able to vote at the end of the day? What does the law really state? Why does this matter now?
As candidate registration opens on Feb. 10 and Parliament remains deadlocked over amending the electoral law, here are answers to the key questions. We start with the most pressing one.
1. Will expatriates be able to vote from abroad or vote at all for that matter?
Short answer: There is no guarantee.
As things stand, Parliament is unlikely to convene to pass an amendment to the current electoral law.
In practical terms, this means expatriates who registered to vote will most likely not be able to cast their ballots from abroad — neither for the six seats nor 128 that make up Parliament.
Registered expatriates would still be allowed to travel to Lebanon and vote there, in their home constituencies, for the full 128 seats.
In other words, voting from abroad is increasingly unlikely, but voting itself is not ruled out, provided expatriates return to Lebanon.
There have been reports suggesting the elections could be postponed to mid-July, during the summer holiday season, allowing expatriates to vote while visiting Lebanon. But according to ministerial information, the Interior Ministry has completed all logistical and administrative preparations to hold the elections in May, under the current electoral law.
Bottom line: Expatriates who want to vote should be prepared to travel to Lebanon in May.
For those who want to go into details:
Under its current form, the electoral law allows expatriates to vote only for six special seats, but without a clear mechanism for implementation (see details below).
What’s more, there is no defined system for how candidates would run for those seats or how voting would be organized abroad.
Therefore, the government argues that the provision is not practically applicable, putting the ability of the diaspora to vote from abroad at risk.
For that and other reasons, many MPs have been pushing for an amendment that would allow expatriates to vote from abroad for the 128 MPs in their home constituencies, as was the case in 2022. That 2022 experience, however, did not sit well with parts of the political establishment, which helps explain the current deadlock (see answers below).
2. How do candidates register for the 2026 parliamentary elections?
Candidate registration opens on Feb. 10 and closes on March 10 at midnight. Each candidate must submit:
- a statement with full name and electoral district
- a passport-style photo
- civil status extract
- proof of payment of candidacy fee set at LL200 million, or about $2,200.
Candidates may withdraw their bids until March 25 at midnight by submitting a notarised withdrawal statement.
Under Lebanon's proportional electoral law, candidates must run on a list.
Sidenote: Proportional law means seats are divided based on the total number of votes each list receives, using a formula (electoral quotient) to decide how many seats each list gets.
List registration must be completed by March 30 at midnight and can be handled by one candidate on behalf of the group. Lists must include the names of all candidates, as well as the designated list name and colour.
Any candidacy not included in a registered list will be automatically cancelled.
3. When did the Lebanese diaspora start voting and under what law?
The right for the Lebanese diaspora to vote in national elections was first introduced in the 2017 electoral law. Before that, if you lived outside Lebanon, you had to fly back home to cast a ballot.
The 2017 law allowed expats to vote from abroad through embassies and consulates.
The law also created a plan to set aside six seats in Parliament specifically for expat voters, with one seat for each of Lebanon’s major religious communities (one Maronite, one Greek Orthodox, one Greek Catholic, one Sunni, one Shiite, one Druze), instead of allowing them to vote for Parliament’s 128 MPs under the districts voters are originally from.
These six seats were supposed to be filled by voters living abroad, grouped into newly created electoral “constituencies” spread across continents, like Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australia. But the law itself remains unclear, lacking a clause on how the mechanism is to be applied.
Here’s the thing, though: no constituency was ever actually set up.
This brings us to our next question.
4. So how did Lebanese expatriates vote in 2018 and more recently in 2022, and why is there a push to change the law today?
In both 2018 and 2022, Lebanese living abroad voted for all 128 members of Parliament, just like voters in Lebanon. The system reserving six seats for the diaspora had not yet been implemented, as no dedicated constituencies existed.
So, there was a “political understanding” to suspend this clause in a bid to find a better mechanism.
Diaspora voters, therefore, cast their ballots in their original constituencies in Lebanon, according to their registration in the civil registry. Their votes were counted toward the national total for the 128 seats, not as part of a separate block reserved for expatriates.
To vote, they had to:
- Register in advance at embassies or consulates during the period set by the Interior Ministry.
- Go to a polling station abroad (usually at an embassy, consulate, or a host-country venue) on election day.
- Have their ballots counted in their original constituency in Lebanon (for example, Zahleh, Tripoli, Baabda, etc.).
For instance, someone registered in Aley but living in Paris would vote at the Lebanese consulate in Paris, and their ballot would count in the Aley district, just like votes cast in Lebanon.
But in 2026, this “political understanding” to allow expats to vote is no longer on the table
Why?
Simply because the diaspora vote didn’t go in favor of those in power, and the voter base abroad is growing fast.
In 2022, around 130,000 Lebanese abroad voted, nearly triple the 2018 turnout. Those votes helped elect at least seven MPs, many of them independents, anti-establishment candidates and Hezbollah opposition. Some traditional parties saw sharp drops in their support:
- Amal-Hezbollah’s share of the expat vote fell from 20 percent in 2018 to 13 percent in 2022.
- The FPM’s share dropped from 16 percent to 7 percent.
And it’s not just about the numbers. It’s about who the diaspora voters are and how they vote.
Many aren’t long-established migrants detached from local politics — they’re young people who left in the past few years, pushed out by the 2019 economic collapse, the 2020 Beirut port explosion and repeated waves of crisis, insecurity and wars.
The last two election numbers show that these voters have consistently backed opposition, reformist and independent candidates more than voters inside Lebanon. In several districts, they tipped tight races and helped reshape the balance of power.
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