Lebanon: Support to the 2018 Parliamentary Elections

On 6 May 2018, Lebanese citizens went to the polls to elect their new parliament for the first time since 2009, based on a new electoral proportional system. The national voter turnout reached 49.7% in the 15 electoral districts. Lebanese voters casted their votes using the preprinted ballot, a reform that was adopted to ensure voting secrecy and, hence, reduce vote-buying. The total number of candidates was 597, including 86 women candidates (14.4%), competing in 77 lists.

And for the first time, 82,970 registered Lebanese nationals residing abroad had the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. On 27 and 29 April, turnout rate reached 59% for Lebanese expats voting in 40 foreign countries.

UNDP LEAP Assistance

Throughout the preparation of these historic elections, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through the Lebanese Elections Assistance Project (LEAP), provided technical assistance and advisory support to the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities (MoIM) and the Supervisory Commission for Elections (SCE) to organize and conduct the required electoral processes according to international standards.

The project supported the MoIM mainly in enhancing the elections’ operations and management capacity by providing technical assistance in various electoral areas including training of polling officers and registration committees, automation of candidates and list registration systems, developing and implementing the result management system, establishing a hotline call center, procuring elections materials such as ballot boxes, and polling booths, designing and printing voter education materials and campaign, amongst others.

UNDP LEAP support to the 2018 Parliamentary Elections

The project also supported SCE in the electoral monitoring and supervision activities through a monitoring system of the media and candidates’/lists’ campaigns as well as institutional strengthening of the Commission.

Furthermore, the project supported the Constitutional Council in enhancing its administrative capacities to facilitate their work during the post parliamentary elections period where the council is expecting to receive electoral challenges.

Under the framework of Voter Education, UNDP LEAP developed and produced several awareness campaigns targeting the public at large, women and youth, aiming at encouraging them to participate in elections.

UNDP LEAP support to the 2018 Parliamentary Elections

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