Watch: More than 25,000 Lebanese expats in UAE vote for their parliamentary election

Dubai: Thousands of Lebanese expats in the UAE on Sunday cast their votes for the parliamentary election scheduled for May 15 in Lebanon.

Long queues of voters showed up at Lebanon’s diplomatic missions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai as the gates opened at 7am.

For 39-year-old Mohammad Negro, the election is a sign of hope for change for the next generation in Lebanon.

Registered voters were given until 10pm on Sunday to cast their ballots for 128 representatives in parliament for the elections that come amid an unprecedented financial crisis that has spurred a mass population exodus.

“We have to do something this time. I voted many times in the past but after the death of [former Lebanese Prime Minister] Rafic Hariri I lost hope in Lebanon. But as I see these lines of voters I told my wife that we have a hope to change,” said Negro, a marketing manager who has been living in the UAE for 13 years now.

Despite the hot weather and long queues, around 20,000 Lebanese voters in Dubai showed up, besides 5,142 in Abu Dhabi.

“I came to vote to save Lebanon. We have hope this year to make a change. All my friends, families and relatives suffered financially and emotionally due to the situation in Lebanon,” Hanaa said.

He voted for the first time in his life.

“We should be with our Arab brothers. We thank UAE for their hospitality and generosity. We hope people in Lebanon vote for change.”

Assaf Doumit, Consul General of Lebanon in Dubai, told Gulf News that the consulate provided parking lots and cooling halls to welcome voters.

“The doors will be open until 10pm but we might extend it if there are still voters in lines.”

While opposition figures have pinned their hopes on the diaspora, experts said the elections were expected to uphold the status quo, despite years of economic meltdown.

Earlier, on Friday, Lebanese expats in nine Arab countries and in Iran had cast their votes, with Syria and Iran seeing the highest turnout rates, according to Lebanese Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullah Bou Habib.

The Lebanese diaspora in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar and six other countries were first to cast their votes. The second round of voting was held on Sunday in another 49 countries, including the UAE, where Sunday is a holiday.

The development marked the second time in Lebanon’s history that citizens residing abroad were able to vote for their 128 representatives. The vote is the first since mass protests erupted in late 2019 against the country’s entrenched ruling elite, widely blamed for the economic collapse.

Bou Habib had said that Lebanese based abroad would be able to vote in more than 205 polling stations worldwide.

The number of Lebanese who have registered to vote abroad has climbed from the roughly 92,000 in 2018 elections – though only 50,000 of them voted at the time.

But voter registration, while on the rise, remains relatively low among the millions of Lebanese who live abroad, and their descendants.

The economic crisis has pushed middle-class Lebanese, including families, fresh graduates, doctors and nurses to emigrate in search of a better future.

While opposition groups hope the diaspora will vote for change, only six percent of overseas voters picked independents in 2018, according to a recent report by the Paris-based Arab Reform Initiative.

Candidates from the traditional parties have sent messages to many expatriates in recent weeks to appeal for their vote.

On Thursday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for voters registered abroad “not to be complacent and to vote in large numbers”.

Although many Lebanese hope they can vote traditional parties out, experts said this was unlikely as opposition candidates lacked unity, funds and experience.

In January, former prime minister Saad Hariri said he would quit politics and that his party would boycott the polls – leaving his Sunni community leaderless ahead of the elections.

Less prominent Sunni figures, including some politicians from his own party running as independents, are looking to reclaim Hariri’s influence and snatch a seat in parliament.