Businessman Abbas Fawaz, (potential) candidate for the Shiite seat in the 16th district in the 2026 parliamentary elections. (Credit: DR)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is sending growing signals of his determination to enforce the electoral law in its current form — specifically Article 112, which limits expatriate representation to a dedicated constituency of six seats.
After personally setting the tone for candidacies in the upcoming vote, he is now poised to take a further step. As of Friday, Abbas Fawaz, a Shiite businessman based across several African countries and close to Berri, is expected to become the first candidate to run in this 16th constituency.
“I will submit my candidacy for the Shiite seat of the 16th constituency in accordance with the current electoral law,” Fawaz told L’Orient-Le Jour.
While he said he maintains a good relationship with Berri “thanks to the friendship between our parents,” Fawaz insisted he is not a member of the Amal Movement and had never intended to “enter politics in Lebanon.”
“In fact, it was not Berri who asked me to run,” he added, a claim that observers remain skeptical about.
However, Fawaz’s move faces a major obstacle. In practice, the constituency in which he is running does not exist.
The government has not issued the implementing decrees for the provisions related to diaspora voting in the 2017 electoral law, arguing that it is up to Parliament to clarify how the text should be applied. This point had already been highlighted by Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar in the decree opening the candidate registration period issued a few days ago.
The text specifies that candidacies apply only to the 15 constituencies inside Lebanon, given the inability to accept applications for the diaspora seats.
What can the Interior Ministry do in response to Fawaz’s move?
“There are two possible scenarios. Either reject the candidacy — which is unlikely, since no one can be deprived of their right to run — or accept the application in form and then dismiss it due to the absence of implementing decrees for the 16th constituency,” said former Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud.
Berri is likely aware of this obstacle. But the candidacy appears to be his way of responding to the opinion issued by the Justice Ministry’s Legislation Commission.
Last week, the commission ruled in favor of allowing expatriates to vote for the 128 MPs elected in Lebanon’s domestic constituencies, an opinion Berri quickly dismissed as non-binding.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour and was translated by Sahar Ghoussoub
