A protester demanding full voting rights for the Lebanese diaspora, in front of Parliament in Beirut, on July 31, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
An hour before Thursday’s parliamentary session opened, about 50 demonstrators staged a sit-in in front of Beirut’s municipal building with a clear demand: full voting rights for Lebanese expatriates. That means allowing them to vote for all 128 members of Parliament — just as Lebanese citizens living in the country can.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on June 30 blocked a proposed amendment that would have granted expatriates that right, as was the case in the 2018 and 2022 elections.
The issue has since become a flashpoint in Parliament. Berri seeks to enforce a clause in the current electoral law, passed in 2017, under which six additional MPs would be elected solely by diaspora voters. The problem: the law is vague and does not clearly define how to implement the mechanism for those six seats.
On the ground, independent MPs, members of the National Bloc and dozens of citizens made their voices heard. Among the MPs present were Cynthia Zarazir, Waddah Sadek, Najat Saliba, Halima Kaakour, Michel Douaihy and Ibrahim Mneimneh.
“The Lebanese diaspora makes up 25 percent of the electorate, but their voices and rights are not worth less,” said Lynn Harfoush, a National Bloc member. “We insist that the speaker put this issue back on the agenda,” she added, claiming that the parties pushing for the six-seat restriction — namely Hezbollah, the Amal Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement — are “the ones who would lose in a full diaspora vote.”
“In Lebanon or abroad, our rights are the same,” added fellow Bloc member Philippe Edde.
Among the crowd was Lamia, an expatriate who has lived in France for over 35 years. She stood with her sister and daughter, holding a sign that read “128 not 6.”
“Yes, we are expatriates, but we are Lebanese above all,” she said. “Our departure wasn’t a choice — it was forced by the situation in the country,” she added, reaffirming that her “roots remain anchored in Lebanon.” She concluded: “We have a voice. We have a role in shaping our society, and we have the right to participate in building Lebanon’s future — if not for ourselves, then for our children.”
Flyers promoting an online petition were handed out at the scene by members of Change Lebanon, one of 16 groups behind the campaign. The petition, addressed to MPs, rejects the proposal to assign just six parliamentary seats to the diaspora. It has garnered more than 15,000 signatures so far.
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