LF, Kataeb and other MPs walk out of parliament over expat voting bill
Quorum was maintained Monday after the MPs of the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party and some Change and independent MPs walked out of parliament after a bill related to expat voting was not put on the agenda.
Responding to MP George Okais of the LF over a petition signed by more than 65 MPs regarding the expat voting law, Speaker Nabih Berri said: “We have not received the petition and it has not reached us. When it reaches us, we will deal with it according to norms.”
“Do not threaten me (with walking out). The session will go on,” Berri added.
Okais for his part told MTV that “the battle today is not legal at all, but rather political par excellence, and it is the battle of granting expats the right to take part in political life.”
Berri, Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement want to limit expat voting to six newly-introduced seats that would be dedicated to expats, as per the 2017 electoral law, knowing that the six-seat amendment was not implemented in the 2018 and 2022 elections and expats were allowed to vote freely according to their original electoral districts. The latest amendment had stipulated that the six seats would be introduced in the 2026 elections.
The LF, Kataeb and some Change and independent MPs meanwhile want the abolition of the six-seat amendment to allow expats to vote according to their electoral districts as they did in 2018 and 2022.
Source: Naharnet
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