BEIRUT: The number of registered expatriates for the 2013 parliamentary elections should not be a standard by which people are granted their voting rights, said the Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform in a press release issued Friday.
“The campaign hopes that officials will not use the low number of registered names as an excuse not to apply the law,” the release said, adding the campaign expected the number to increase as the elections’ date approaches.

It also insisted on the “duty of the government and its concerned ministries” to provide the necessary mechanisms in order to prevent “any kind of pressure that expatriates might be subjected to.”
The campaign also welcomed the call by some Lebanese embassies for Lebanese citizens abroad to register to vote, encouraging other embassies to follow suit.