Pope’s Lebanon trip likely to be postponed: Source

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis’s trip to Lebanon next month will likely be postponed because of the pontiff’s difficulty walking, a source said on Monday.

The June 12-13 trip had been announced by the Lebanese government.

The Vatican has not yet officially announced the trip but pope has referred to plans to make it on those days in recent interviews.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss such maters, said the pope’s health was the main concern.

A plan for the pope to go from Lebanon to Jerusalem on June 14 to meet Kirill, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, had already been cancelled because of the war in Ukraine.

In recent weeks, the 85-year-old pope has been suffering from a flare up of pain in the right knee, in addition to a long-time case of sciatica, which also causes pain in the legs.

Last Thursday, he used a wheelchair in public for the first time and has been using one since during his private and public audiences.

He is scheduled to make two trips in July, one to South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo and the other to Canada.

BEIRUT: The turnout of Lebanese diaspora voting in 58 countries ahead of May 15 parliamentary elections was nearly 60 per cent, officials said on Monday, similar figures to the last polls in 2018.

Some 130,000 Lebanese expatriates out of 225,000 registered voters cast their ballots, foreign ministry official Hadi Hashem said, releasing preliminary figures.

While the number of overseas voters has more than doubled this year, they represent only a fraction of the millions of Lebanese residing abroad.

In 2018, roughly 50,000 people out of 90,000 registered voters abroad voted, a turnout of 56 per cent.

The overseas ballots will now be sent to the capital Beirut for counting when polls close ater nationwide voting on May 15.

The elections are the first since mass protests erupted in late 2019 against the country’s entrenched ruling elite, widely blamed for the economic collapse.

Although many Lebanese hope they can vote traditional parties out, experts have said this is unlikely as opposition candidates lack unity, funds and experience.

The economic crisis has pushed middleclass Lebanese, including families, graduates, doctors and nurses to emigrate in search of a beter future.