Lebanese abroad cast votes for May 15 parliamentary election hoping for change

Thousands of Lebanese living in nearly 50 countries cast their early ballots on Sunday in the country’s closely watched parliamentary elections, days after voting in the same elections was held in 10 Arab and Muslim nations.

Young expats who fled the country over the past two years amid an unprecedented economic meltdown expressed great enthusiasm in voting for the forces of change over the ruling parties.

About 195,000 Lebanese had registered to vote on Sunday in 48 countries including the UAE, and the US, Canada, Australia, Russia, EU member states and several African nations.

The third and final stage of the elections will take place on May 15 when the Lebanese vote at home.

The polls opened early on Sunday in Australia, where the number of registered voters was 20,602.

The polling process in the UAE kicked off at 6 a.m., with 25,066 registered voters living in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Polls then opened in European and African countries. As soon as the polls closed in Australia at 3 p.m. Beirut time, the polls opened in Canada, the US, Brazil and Venezuela.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib announced that the turnout in Australia had reached 54 percent an hour before the polls closed.

He was speaking from the operations room designated to monitor the elections via internet, which is linked to all polling stations around the world.

President Michel Aoun visited the operations room in Beirut where he was briefed on how elections abroad are being monitored.

Aoun hoped that “the elections will end smoothly, without problems or objections and for things to improve in the upcoming elections so that they would be easier and at a lower cost than today, by using a code to vote and not having to fly in ballot boxes.”

Many foreign diplomats also visited the operations room.

The EU’s Election Observation Mission’s deputy, Jarek Domanski, said: “The mission’s 16 teams are monitoring the progress of the electoral process, and they are distributed over 13 European countries.”

The teams that will undertake the same task next Sunday will include about 170 observers, Domanski said.

The mission team will monitor the numbers of ballot boxes coming from abroad in order to match them when the counting process begins on May 15.