Parliament during a meeting dedicated to the election of committee members and the Bureau of the Chamber, on Oct. 21, 2025. (Credit: Ali Fawaz/Lebanese Parliament)
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Forces decided on Sunday night during a meeting in Meerab that their MPs would boycott Tuesday's Parliament meeting, which will be dedicated to adopting an emergency assistance project for Lebanon.
The move comes in protest against Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's refusal to include an amendment to the 2017 expat voting law on the agenda — an issue that is currently polarizing Parliament and threatens to delay the spring 2026 legislative elections.
The Lebanese Forces said that attending the session would amount to "submitting to the tyranny" of Berri.
In its statement, the 'Strong Republic' parliamentary bloc said that Parliament has become "a hostage in the hands of its speaker, who uses it as his private property."
"He opens and closes the doors of Parliament as he pleases, decides what will be debated and what will be shelved," the statement accused, describing these practices as a "coup against the Constitution, parliamentary rules of procedure and customs."
MPs in favor of amending the electoral law have already boycotted legislative sessions twice, leaving the scheduled agenda pending.
Tuesday's agenda includes opening a line of credit in the 2025 budget to finance public sector retirees’ salaries and a draft law concerning an agreement between Lebanon and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to implement the Lebanon Emergency Assistance Project (LEAP).
Several other bills and proposals, notably related to reforms required by donor countries, such as tax evasion and a review of the public-private partnership law (adopted in 2017), are also expected to be debated Tuesday.
'Marginalizing the voice of the expats'
Parties in support of changing the diaspora voting law, which was passed in 2017 but never put into practice, have drawn up an urgent draft law that removes Article 112, meaning that overseas voters would vote for MPs in their ancestral village, regardless of the last time they lived there.
The amendment's status as "urgent" would see it discussed directly in a plenary session without passing through committees
Article 112 mandates that expat voters would be relegated to six seats in Parliament designated specifically to represent the Lebanese diaspora, which would be added to the existing 128 MPs.
Hezbollah, the Amal Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement are calling for the law to be implemented as is. Hezbollah, in particular, is seeking to protect its voter base abroad, which in countries where the party is seen as a terrorist organization, could be prevented from casting their votes.
On Thursday evening, Berri said in an interview with MTV that amending the electoral law was aimed at "isolating" the Shiite community from the Lebanese political scene.
The Lebanese Forces accuse supporters of the 2017 law of seeking to avoid a protest vote from the diaspora. Their refusal to remove this article aims to "marginalize the voice of expatriates," Sunday's statement said.
According to the Lebanese Forces, Article 112 gives the six additional seats a "symbolic" character that does not reflect the "actual weight" carried by expats. "The government itself has acknowledged the impossibility of distributing these seats among the continents and organizing valid elections" on this topic, the party said.
The Interior Ministry has begun organizing the election and the Foreign Affairs Ministry has opened online registration for expatriate voters. The latter ministry, which is overseen by the Lebanese Forces, has submitted a bill to suspend Article 112.
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