Around 60% of Lebanese expats who registered to take part in parliamentary elections cast ballots across 40 countries for the first time in history, Annahar reported Monday (April 30th).
Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil welcomed this "unprecedented participation", noting that 58% of registered voters cast their ballots in Australia, 60% in Europe, 45% in Latin America, 68% in Africa, 45% in the US and 69% in the Arab world.
"The turn out would have been higher if it were not for some problems that we encountered," said Bassil, highlighting the fact that a number of people failed to receive their passports or the necessary paperwork needed in time.
The 12,611 Lebanese expatriates registered in the Middle East were the first to cast ballots for the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament, with voters elsewhere in the world voting on Sunday, a week before the May 6th polling in Lebanon, which has not renewed its parliament since 2009.
Of the estimated one million-plus Lebanese nationals scattered across the globe, of which around two thirds qualify to vote, only 82,900 have registered.
The number of voters registered outside Lebanon is a fraction of the 3.7 million eligible voters in the country.
But for a first try, it is a "satisfactory" number, a diplomat told AFP on Friday.
