Geagea: LF accepted electoral law years ago, planned to abolish Article 112 later

BEIRUT — Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea said his party accepted the electoral law years ago, even with Article 112, which allows the diaspora to vote for only six seats, because the alternative would have been the complete collapse of the law and all its benefits. He added that the plan was always to work later to abolish this specific article.

Debate over diaspora voting has been deadlocked for months and risks leading to the postponement of the parliamentary elections, scheduled for May 2026. Some civil society groups and political parties, including the Lebanese Forces, have pushed to amend the 2017 electoral law to allow expatriates to vote for all 128 MPs in Lebanon, while others advocate maintaining Article 112.

While addressing the party’s Canada branch via Zoom, Geagea urged all expatriates to “be fully prepared for the upcoming parliamentary elections", the state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday.

Responding to those who say that the LF agreed to this law at the time, so why do they want to change it now, Geagea said: "Yes, we agreed, because the law has many positives, even if it contains this flaw. Before its adoption, [Free Patriotic Movement leader] Gebran Bassil had refused to approve it if this article was removed or amended, and as usual at the time, the Shiite duo supported him in everything he wanted ... Since they had a parliamentary majority, they refused to move forward with it unless Article 112 was included. We were left with two options: either the law would fail entirely, along with all its benefits or we accept it with Article 112 and work later to abolish it. That’s what we did, and now the time has come to remove this article.”

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"Now is the time to amend Article 112, and fortunately, we have a majority, indeed, a large majority, in parliament for this amendment. So what did Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri do? He blocked parliament and refused to refer the bill to the general assembly. This is our ongoing battle", he added.

Geagea finally called the expatriates to come to Lebanon and vote here in case all efforts to amend the law fail. "We must not allow them to block us under any circumstances", he said.