Diaspora vote: Race against time begins

We will have to wait until September. This is how several political circles summarized to L'Orient-Le Jour the stalemate in talks over the electoral law since June. The standstill is the result of a suspension in meetings of the ad hoc parliamentary committee, tasked with reviewing the proposals to amend the current legislation (adopted in 2017), as members await a possible Cabinet decision. But no breakthrough is expected in the near future, especially since the divide remains wide between the key players regarding the voting mechanism for expatriates. On one side, there are those pressing for the strict implementation of Article 112 of the law, which limits the diaspora vote to only six MPs. On the other are those who want to enshrine the right of expatriates to elect all of the country’s 128 MPs. This debate has dragged on amid a...