The leader of the FPM, Gebran Bassil. (Photo: DR)
The head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), Gebran Bassil, accused the government on Saturday, during a meeting with young supporters, of “encouraging Syrians to stay in Lebanon” instead of “returning them to their country.” He also expressed concern over the potential abolition of voting rights for Lebanese expatriates.
“The government encourages Syrians to remain in Lebanon, and even to come from Syria to Lebanon,” said the FPM leader, adding that his party “is the only one to have taken a stand on this issue since 2011.” “Instead of taking the necessary steps to return Syrians to their country, the government is now allowing Syrian students to enroll in public schools without having identity documents,” he protested. “Any student living in Syria can decide to come study in Lebanon whenever they wish, which has an impact on the level of public schools,” Bassil added.
Education Minister Rima Karameh announced about ten days ago that Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are of school age, whether or not in possession of identification documents, will this year be allowed to register in public schools to attend afternoon classes.
“Everyone remained silent on the issue of Syrian refugees, and the FPM is the only party fighting and proposing laws to ensure that Syrians return to their country. As long as this return does not take place, it means your future is not assured, and with Syrian labor being less expensive than Lebanese labor, it will force Lebanese to emigrate and Syrian refugees to take their place,” he emphasized.
On the issue of expatriate voting, Bassil explained that the Lebanese diaspora “won the right to vote from abroad for the first time in 2018 thanks to the FPM and a law passed in Parliament.” “Today, they have the choice, according to the law, to elect either the six diaspora members of parliament (MPs) or MPs from their constituency by voting in Lebanon,” he said.
According to him, “all other political parties are seeking either to remove this right or to keep the six seats (meant to represent Lebanese abroad). We fear greatly they will take us back to the pre-2018 situation, thus abolishing the expatriates’ right to vote,” he said.
The opposition to the Amal-Hezbollah duo supports amending the 2017 electoral law, in other words, allowing Lebanese abroad to vote from their country of residence for all 128 MPs, and not just for six additional MPs.
