With long-awaited parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2018, the Lebanese government provided an online platform Nov. 3-20 so non-resident Lebanese could register to vote. More than 90,000 eligible voters took advantage of the opportunity, the first time such an option had been offered.

Elections law No. 25, adopted in 2008, stipulated that out-of-country voting begin with the 2013 parliamentary elections — previously, Lebanese expatriates returned home if they wanted to vote — but balloting has been postponed three times, to 2014, 2017 and currently 2018. Lebanese abroad would have been able to register at embassies and consulates ahead of the 2013 elections. 

“The only change is that this registration process could be done online, which is very good, because it increased the number of voters able to register,” Zeina Helou, general-secretary of the Beirut-based Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections, told Al-Monitor. “In 2013, a study by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assessed that around 900,000 non-resident Lebanese were eligible voters, but only 10% — 92,810 people — were registered.”

Helou also explained that several thousand people had been unable to complete the process on time. “The government is currently discussing extending the [registration] deadline, notably due to the difficulty of getting the necessary papers for around 8,000 people, but nothing has been confirmed yet,” Helou said. “I think that people abroad might not be that enthusiastic about this election, because it was postponed, and they are afraid it will be [postponed] again. Also, some of them never come to Lebanon.”