Suleiman, Mansour Discuss Voting of Lebanese Expatriates

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

President Michel Suleiman discussed with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour on Saturday preparations underway at Lebanese missions abroad to allow expats to cast their ballots next year.

Parliament hasn't yet approved an electoral law after the cabinet referred to it a bill that divides Lebanon into 13 electoral districts based on proportional representation.

Several March 14 opposition MPs have accused the Foreign Ministry of negligence and considered that it failed to prepare the proper measures to ensure the participation of expats in the 2013 parliamentary elections.

Their accusation came after Mansour said some 3,000 expats had registered to vote in Lebanese embassies and missions. The lawmakers dismissed the figure as inaccurate.

Suleiman ruled out on Friday the postponement of the polls saying the rotation of power is the right path in democratic life.

A statement issued by Baabda palace also said that the talks between the president and Mansour on Saturday focused on the foreign ministry's work following the diplomatic appointments made by the cabinet last month.

The appointments, including those for posts of ambassadors, came after disputes between political parties had held up the issue for years.

Comments 9
Thumb shab 10 November 2012, 15:55

Useless minister

Missing rami 10 November 2012, 16:18

Thought the boss has started ignoring this twit. He is the first one who should go, even before Miqati. Shame on whoever appointed such a person to represent us abroad. Obviously, he spends most of his time at the Iranian embassy... now you know to whom he reports.

Default-user-icon shenaswioz (Guest) 10 November 2012, 16:35

While I constantly made my best effort to do things right, there were things I simply didn't know... yet. And they were costly lessons in time, money, or both in each and every case. Rest assured that none of the experiences in that list was repeated, ever!
The first print run had no clean right angles on the cover trim.

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Thumb geha 10 November 2012, 17:21

expat voting will turn the numbers of votes higher for Christians, which is exactly what hizbushaitan does not want.
they want to change the Taef accord based on low Christian numbers :)

Thumb Elemental 11 November 2012, 01:04

HA are, for the majority, originally from Iran anyways, so I ignore them to begin with.

Thumb Elemental 11 November 2012, 01:06

Ask them simply, where did their family's originate? From what village? If they can't answer back at least 500 years here...oh you know, already I caught a few HA members by asking that simple question.

Thumb thefool 11 November 2012, 15:57

Wrong, Hizbullah wants change in the electoral law. The Law of 1960 does not benefit them.

Missing phillipo 10 November 2012, 18:04

Actually, most countries in the world do not give expatriates the vote, especially when the voting system is by constituencies, as in Lebanon.

Thumb thefool 11 November 2012, 15:56

Did you do your google search before your comment? Iraq, has Iraqis living abroad being able to vote. The US, France, Germany, UK, every "democracy" - big & small.