The Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities
Elections are organised by the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM). The Ministry manages the Voter Lists, registers candidates for the elections, organises polling, counting and publication of the results. It can also suggest the adoption of government decrees to regulate the implementation of the Election Law, where the present law does not provide for the details of their implementation.
The MoIM co-operates with Governors (Muhafez), who are appointed by the Council of Ministers, and sub-Governors (Qaimaqam). These are responsible for, inter alia, Polling Station location, Polling Staff recruitment and training, election equipment and participation in the aggregation of results.
Supervisory Commission on the Electoral Campaign (SCEC)
The new Election Law (December 2008) establishes a ‘Supervisory Commission on the Electoral Campaign.’ Based on proposals from the Minister of the Interior and Municipalities, the Council of Ministers appoints the ten members of the Commission, including three judges, two former Presidents of Bar Associations, two media experts and three electoral experts. The Minister supervises the Commission’s work and may chair its meetings, but s/he does not have the right to vote. The Commission’s two main areas of competence relate to campaign financing and media issues.
Registration Committees
There are one or more Registration Committees in every electoral district and 69 in total. They are composed of three members: one judge (as President), one mayor/councillor from a municipal council, and one employee of the Directorate General of Personal Status of the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities. Registration Committees make decisions on requests for Voter Lists rectification and receive elections results which they review, and count and tabulate the results obtained by each candidate. The Registration Committee must make its decisions within five days. Its decisions can be appealed within five days to a Higher Registration Committee.
Every one of the 26 electoral districts has a Higher Registration Committee. They are also composed of three members: one judge from the Court of Cassation or the Court of Appeal (as President), one mayor/councillor from a municipal council, and one senior employee of the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities’ Central Inspection Bureau. Higher Registration Committees review received documents and correct data and counting mistakes. Any decision of the Higher Registration Committee on the appeal is final. However, there is no deadline for this decision.
Registration Committees and Higher Registration Committees are key players in the aggregation of results process.
Voter Registration
Voter registration in Lebanon is a passive system administered by the Directorate General of Personal Status of the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities. The register is automatically compiled from the civil status records held at Civil Registry Offices that are distributed throughout the Governorates (Muhafazat), and whose responsibility is to maintain a register of all births, marriages, deaths and other changes to a citizen’s personal status. Citizens are registered at the geographic location of origin of their family and, as a result, many are registered to vote in remote electoral districts and not where they live. Upon marriage, a woman’s place of civil registration is automatically transferred to her husband’s registered location of origin.
Lebanon has a centralised computerised voter registration database, drawn from the handwritten civil status record books held at the Civil Registry Offices. The database is annually updated to include newly eligible voters and to remove those voters who have died or who have become ineligible to vote. This process, which also involves a cross-check to ensure that a citizen is registered in only one electoral district, was undertaken between 5 December 2008 and 5 January 2009.
The 2008 Election Law requires that the Voter Register contain the voter’s full name (i.e. voter’s given name, father’s name and family name), mother’s name, personal registration number, sex, date of birth and registered confession. Voter Registers are compiled on a confessional basis.
From 10 February, all citizens had the right to inspect the preliminary update of the Voter Register (PVR). The exhibition phase is aimed at allowing citizens to check that they are included on the Voter Register and, if so, that all the relevant data are accurate and complete. The public scrutiny also allows for citizens to check the data of other persons, (i.e. to check that no ineligible person is wrongly included on the Voter Register or that an eligible person has been wrongly omitted).
Article 35 of the 2008 Election Law allows “any interested individual” to submit a request to correct the Voter Register. Such a request is submitted to the immediate Registration Committee accompanied by supporting evidence and documents. No fee is payable for submitting the request.
Registration Committees make decisions on requests for Voter Lists’ rectification and receive elections’ results which they review, and count and tabulate the results obtained by each candidate. The Registration Committee must make its decision within five days. Its decision can be appealed within five days to a Higher Registration Committee. Any decision of the Higher Registration Committee on the appeal is final. There is no deadline for this decision.
All decisions of the Registration Committees and Higher Registration Committees that amend the Voter Register are entered into the final version by the MoIM. The Voter Register is finalised by March 30 every year and stays in principal unchangeable to March 30 the following year. However, the Election Law (Art. 81:3) allows a competent Registration Committee to issue a decision allowing non-registrants to vote, which should be honoured by the Polling Station Staff.
The Voter Register for each electoral district is used to designate every voter to a Polling Station. Ahead of Election Day, the final Voter Register is again distributed for voters to be informed of the Polling Station in which they are registered to vote. On Election Day, every Polling Station is issued with two extracts from the Voter Register, one of which is signed by every voter after they have cast their ballot.
