Lebanese President Joseph Aoun receiving the Maronite Patriarch, Bechara al-Rai, in Baabda, July 8, 2025. (Credit: Presidency's X account)
On Sunday, for the very first time, Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai expressed a firm position on the issue of expatriate voting in the 2026 legislative elections.“Lebanese from the diaspora must be able to vote freely based on their original constituencies,” Rai said in his Sunday sermon, in the presence of President Joseph Aoun.Fearing the “exclusion” of the diaspora, the head of the Maronite Church openly called for the repeal of Article 112 of the 2017 electoral law, which grants expatriates the right to elect six members of Parliament in a special constituency created just for them. Context Rai: Diaspora voting for only 6 MPs instead of all 128 'form of exclusion' Less than a year before the elections, Rai appears to have aligned himself with those advocating for expatriates to vote for all 128 MPs. In doing so, he positioned...
On Sunday, for the very first time, Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai expressed a firm position on the issue of expatriate voting in the 2026 legislative elections.“Lebanese from the diaspora must be able to vote freely based on their original constituencies,” Rai said in his Sunday sermon, in the presence of President Joseph Aoun.Fearing the “exclusion” of the diaspora, the head of the Maronite Church openly called for the repeal of Article 112 of the 2017 electoral law, which grants expatriates the right to elect six members of Parliament in a special constituency created just for them. Context Rai: Diaspora voting for only 6 MPs instead of all 128 'form of exclusion' Less than a year before the elections, Rai appears to have aligned himself with those advocating for expatriates to vote for all 128 MPs. In doing so, he...
'American sponsorship is a guarantee,' says Lebanese-American coordination committee