Suleiman Calls for Electoral Law that Avoids One-Sided Representation: Expatriates Have Right to Vote

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Thursday that Lebanese expatriates have the right to vote in the 2013 parliamentary elections, lamenting the fact that the state has not done enough for them.

He wondered: “Isn't the parliamentary electoral law a cornerstone of the democratic system? Don't the expatriates have the right to vote?”

The president made his remarks during a Jbeil ceremony urging expatriates to take part in next year's elections.

“How can we ask so much from the expatriates without giving them anything back in return?” he asked.

“Is it possible that at the time of globalization that the expatriates are not granted the right to vote in the parliamentary elections?” continued Suleiman.

The government has referred a draft law allowing them to vote to parliament and the Foreign Ministry is devising the necessary mechanism to achieve this goal, he stressed.

“Allowing them to vote is not aimed at reversing equations in Lebanon or creating sectarian alignments,” he declared at the ceremony.

He demanded that an electoral law that prevents one-sided representation be adopted.

The new law should instead bolster coexistence, stressed the president.

The government approved in August an electoral law based on proportional representation and 13 districts.

The proposal has yet to be approved at parliament and it has been met with rejection by various opposition powers and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat.