Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Monday said that voting for the FPM in the parliamentary elections is equivalent to voting for one’s “dignity.”

“The FPM has been and will always be your dignity. Vote for it,” Bassil said in a tweet.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday lauded Lebanese expats for “performing their national and constitutional duty” in the expat polls that were held on May 6 and 8.

“I thank everyone who took the trouble to travel and cross thousands of miles to reaffirm the honesty and genuineness of their belonging to Lebanon, the country whose borders are the entire universe,” Berri added.

Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi launched Monday a new electronic platform for entering and sorting votes.

The new platform will be used for the first time in Lebanon in the May 15 parliamentary elections, next Sunday.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lauded “the role of the government, the concerned ministers and the employees of embassies and diplomatic missions for the proper management” of expat parliamentary polls, which got underway in the morning in dozens of countries.

“We have seen the Lebanese women and men heading to polling stations with pain, anger and hope showing on their faces,” al-Rahi added in his Sunday Mass sermon.

Supporters of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the Amal Movement on Sunday turned out heavily in Lebanon’s expat parliamentary elections in Germany.

Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib reassured Sunday that “polling stations in Dubai will not be closed before all Lebanese present in the consulate cast their votes,” amid scenes of long queues of voters who lined up in scorching heat.

President Michel Aoun on Sunday visited the Foreign Ministry to inspect its monitoring of the second round of expat parliamentary elections that got underway in the morning in 48 countries.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati visited the Foreign Ministry Friday afternoon to inspect its administration of the expat voting process in the Arab countries and Iran which had kicked off in the morning.

“I was pleased with this tour in which I examined the electoral process and looked into all statistics,” Miqati said after the tour.

The monitors of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) on Friday objected against a video call between Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and LF delegates in KSA that was blasted through a loudspeaker, calling it a breach of electoral silence, al-Jadeed TV reported.

“May God give you strength and may you stay this energetic, because we need every minute of work by you until the end of the day,” Geagea is heard telling the delegates in the call, likely outside a polling station in Saudi Arabia.

The deputy head of Hizbullah’s Executive Council, Sheikh Ali Daamoush, announced Friday that the electoral battle is between two projects – one that “has an economic and financial vision and is looking forward to rescue the country,” and another that is “imported from abroad and whose main slogan is besieging the resistance and disarming it.”

The rival project is “the project of America’s people in Lebanon,” Daamoush added.