BEIRUT: Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk Friday downplayed the funding allocations for next year’s Parliamentary elections approved by Cabinet a day earlier, saying the amount wasn't final.

After the criticism that Machnouk faced following Cabinet’s decision Thursday to approve allocations worth $46.5 million to cover the expenses of May 2018’s Parliamentary elections, the minister explained that he requested this amount as a precaution.

“The $50 million allocation that I asked for to cover the expenses of the Parliamentary elections was a precaution and isn’t the final amount because political parties haven’t agreed yet on an implementation mechanism of the new electoral law which will control the final spending,” he said speaking during a meeting with the Future Movement’s Women’s Department.

Machnouk explained that $25 million will be allocated to buy 10, 000 electronic readers worth $10 million and that the other $10 million will be used to establish polling stations along the coast line for those who will vote where they live as opposed to in their ancestral villages and that are known as "mega centers," due to their large populations.

“This is in addition to $5 million for pre-printed ballots,” Machnouk said. “There is also the cost of ads to raise awareness and explain the law for citizens as well as training programs for the employees who will oversee and implement the electoral process and who amount to 10,000 people.”

He added that the U.N. Development Program has offered to provide all the logistics needs for the election Supervisory Committee.