Will You Register Your Name?
The Minister of External Affairs is asking the Lebanese abroad to register their names with Lebanese embassies. Should we listen to him?
Yesterday, during a Tv show, Minister Fawzi salloukh proposed that the Lebanese abroad register their names so that ‘the Lebanese government can keep records of them”.
The proposal comes amid growing demands for the Lebanese abroad to vote in the upcoming elections and Mr. Salloukh’s suggestion could be seen as a first step in that direction. But before the Lebanese rush to register their names, they should be careful about a potential trap that could deprive them of that very right.
We shouldn’t forget that Mr. Salloukh, after all, is a politician who belongs to a political party. He could well be gathering that information to ‘feel the waters’ for his party’s chances in such an election. If the data wasn’t favorable, Mr. Berri could very well shoot down the diaspora’s voting.
But what if Mr. Salloukh’s intentions were good? Doesn’t the ministry of external affairs and immigrants have the right to collect information before organizing elections outside of the country?
Of course it does, but it should be done in coordination with a bipartisan electoral commission that would emerge from the new electoral law. Anything before that could very much be a scam by politicians to control our votes.
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Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.
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Under the current circumstances this proposal is very suspicious. Considering the source, I’d say it is a ploy to gather names and keep track of this would be “electorate” for political reasons and potentially blacklist a few individuals who may be deemed “unfavorable” to one “party”, if you get my drift.
….carriage before the horse?
knowing Lebanese politics we should all be sceptical of these nonsense! let them legislate the law, then I’ll register. It seems like they are trying to guestimate the weight of their “votes”…
Judging by the the staffing levels of our embassies, and how most embassadors get appointed, I would not trust Salloukh for the time being.
The right to the franchise trumps all other considerations. It is the duty of the government, any government, to make sure that none of its citizens is disenfranchised. This implies that the logistics, as important as they are, are not a leading issue in this case. A decision to make it possible for the Lebanese citizens abroad to participate in the elections must be taken without any considerations of how many Lebanese are overseas, where do they reside and who is it that they are likely to support.
People abroad will not be allowed to vote, period.
Due to our unity goverment a.k.a. “not getting anything done goverment” there will always be someone not happy with this, thus forget about it.
Not a chance. Unless they can provide a valid reason any why we should register, its not going to happen.
Those of us who are Lebanese-born naturalized US citizens should be careful and keep in mind that voting in a foreign election may result in the US citizenship being revoked…
Prepare for the Hezbozo death squad.
Gilbert brings up an interesting point but to the best of my knowledge his information is not accurate.
The US used to have a law that would cause the loss of US citizenship if one votes in a foreign election. This is no longer the case since 1978. The Supreme court struck down that law in Afroyim v . Rusk and then the US Congress repealed the law in question in 1978.
Important Disclosure: I am not a lawyer so please do not act upon my advice without double checking with a reputable law firm.