A female voter casting her ballot in the box during municipal elections in North Lebanon on May 11, 2025. Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour
It has turned into a true game of ping-pong between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. The two officials keep passing the responsibility for the unclear rules governing the expatriate voting.With less than three months until the elections and only three weeks remaining before the deadline for submitting candidates, there is a real risk that this key moment in Lebanon’s parliamentary democracy will be delayed.What constitutional scenarios are possible? L’Orient-Le Jour breaks it down.Enforcing the current law: A deadlockThis scenario is eagerly championed by the Amal-Hezbollah alliance and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM): enforcing the current law, passed in 2017, whose Article 112 provides for six additional seats dedicated to the diaspora. FPM leader Gebran Bassil has even expressed his...
It has turned into a true game of ping-pong between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. The two officials keep passing the responsibility for the unclear rules governing the expatriate voting.With less than three months until the elections and only three weeks remaining before the deadline for submitting candidates, there is a real risk that this key moment in Lebanon’s parliamentary democracy will be delayed.What constitutional scenarios are possible? L’Orient-Le Jour breaks it down.Enforcing the current law: A deadlockThis scenario is eagerly championed by the Amal-Hezbollah alliance and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM): enforcing the current law, passed in 2017, whose Article 112 provides for six additional seats dedicated to the diaspora. FPM leader Gebran Bassil has even expressed his...
