The head of the FPM, Gebran Bassil, during a ceremony in Brussels with members of the FPM, on Oct. 18, 2025. (Credit: NNA)
The head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), Gebran Bassil, spoke in Brussels, where he is on a visit, about expatriate voting in the parliamentary elections scheduled for spring 2026.
“Voting in the legislative elections and running as a candidate are acquired rights for expatriates under the current electoral law, just like other rights that we must strengthen,” he said before a supportive audience.
Bassil is in Belgium to monitor his party’s work in the country ahead of the parliamentary elections, and he is also expected to travel to France.
The current law provides for expatriates to elect six MPs representing the different continents, who would be added to the 128 seats allocated to constituencies inside Lebanon.
More than 60 MPs have proposed an amendment to this article of the law in order to allow expatriates to vote for all 128 MPs, according to their place of origin in Lebanon, a proposal supported by most major Lebanese emigrant organizations.
The FPM and the Amal-Hezbollah alliance are among the few blocs opposed to this amendment. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, leader of Amal, refuses to place it on the parliamentary agenda, which caused a lack of quorum at the last parliamentary session.
For Bassil, “it is important for the diaspora to have its own MPs in order to legislate on issues that concern it, such as the high cost of air tickets to and from Lebanon, for example.”
Geagea: 'Register in large numbers!'
Head of the Lebanese Forces (LF), Samir Geagea, called on Lebanese expatriates to “register in large numbers to vote in their countries of residence, because without a doubt we will manage to amend this law so that you can vote for one of the 128 seats.”
The LF is leading the blocs that are calling for an amendment of the law. These blocs suspect the others of fearing a loss of control over their supporters if expatriates are allowed to vote for all seats.
“We insist that expatriates should be able to vote from their countries of residence. That’s why, as part of a bloc of 67 MPs, a parliamentary majority, we submitted a proposal to amend the law,” Geagea said in a virtual address to expatriates, reported by the al-Markazia news agency.
He added that this action would be followed by efforts to push for a government bill along the same lines, aiming to have the issue added to the parliamentary agenda.
Geagea also urged expatriates to “register in large numbers to take part in the elections from their host countries,” with the registration deadline set for Nov. 20.
According to him, even if, “in the worst-case scenario,” the law is not amended, expatriates could still be re-registered to vote in Lebanon itself.
“We are all capable of paying for a plane ticket to come and vote in our homeland,” he said.
For his part, Ghassan Skaff, an independent MP from Rachaya, proposed a middle-ground solution on Sunday. The compromise would scrap constituency 16 (the one representing the six expatriate MPs), postpone the election by a few weeks, and allow expatriates to come vote in Lebanon while taking advantage of the summer holidays.
