Lebanon is conducting the first parliamentary election in nearly a decade after introducing new electoral law with proportional representation. According to Al Jazeera, polls opened on Sunday morning with 583 candidates competing for the 128 seats in parliament through 77 rival lists, spread across 15 districts.
The report says, under the terms of a new electoral law that introduced proportional representation, voters will be casting two votes; one for a list of candidates and one for a single preferred candidate.
There are up to 3.8 million registered voters in the country. More than 700,000 voters will be casting their ballots for the first time. About 6,800 polling stations were opened across the country, under the presence of the gendarmerie.
Voting will continue until 19:00 local time (16:00 GMT).
The report quoted Nisreen Affar, an insurance company employee who walked out of one the polling stations in Achrafieh, an affluent Beirut neighbourhood as saying
"I am honestly very happy. It's been a while since we last voted. I am happy with the change this will bring about - something we have a role in, something that has our imprint," she said. We have to serve the country for it to serve us."
