Date: Mar 13, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Candidate filing for Tripoli by-election to open Thursday BEIRUT: Aspirants for an upcoming by-election for a vacant parliamentary seat in Tripoli can file their candidacy starting Thursday, the Interior Ministry has announced. The ministry set the candidacy filing period from the morning of March 14 to midnight March 29, according to a statement carried by the state-run National News Agency. Those wishing to run in the election can submit their candidacy to the Interior Ministry's Directorate of Political Affairs and Refugees. The deadline to withdraw a candidacy was set at midnight April 3. The election will be held on April 14 to fill the fifth Sunni seat in Tripoli, which was left empty last month after former MP Dima Jamali’s election was annulled. The annulment of Jamali’s seat was based on a decision by the Constitutional Council following an appeal by failed candidate Taha Naji, who had run against Jamali in the May 2018 parliamentary elections as part of MP Faisal Karami’s National Dignity list. Jamali, who belongs to Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement, last week launched her campaign to run in the by-election. Voters living abroad will have to travel to Lebanon if they want participate in the by-election. Members of the Lebanese diaspora were allowed to vote at polling stations abroad in the 2018 parliamentary elections for the first time under a new electoral law, which however states that special elections are only held domestically. Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil issued a circular Tuesday calling on Lebanese diplomatic missions to inform Tripoli constituents abroad to confirm they are registered to vote if they intend to travel to Lebanon to participate in the election. Voter registration can be checked on the Interior Ministry's website, and voters will need a valid Lebanese ID or passport to participate, the circular said.