Lebanese citizens are casting their ballots in the third round of municipal and mayoral elections on Sunday, with the vote taking place this week in the governorates of Beirut, Bekaa, and Baalbek-Hermel.
Polling stations opened early at 7:00 a.m. (Beirut time), with Lebanese officials being among citizens who casted their ballots across the three governorates.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam expressed confidence that “the people of Beirut are capable of ensuring that everyone is represented in the municipal council.”
Speaking after casting his vote in one of the city’s high schools, the Lebanese premier emphasized the urgent need for development in the capital.
“Beirut needs development and improvement, starting with the road conditions, traffic jams, and garbage management,” he noted.
Salam also hoped that the voter turnout will be high, expressing support for any joint efforts that would serve the city of Beirut with clear a development program.
Salam, meanwhile, inspected this morning the central operations room monitoring the electoral process at the Ministry of Interior, accompanied by Defense and Interior Ministers Michel Mnassah and Ahmad Al-Hajjar.
“The electoral process has begun in all polling stations, and there have been no security issues so far. All missing items have been secured for all polling stations except for one, and a ballot box is being secured after detecting that the existing box was broken,” Al-Hajjar said at the HQ of the Interior Ministry in Beirut’s Hamra area.
Al-Hajjar also said that the municipal elections are to take place on time next Saturday.
“We have made the necessary contacts, and Lebanon does not wait for guarantees from the Israeli enemy, but provides guarantees to its own people.”
Later on Sunday, the Ministry of Interior released several updates on the voter turnout rates in the three governorates.
In its latest update at noon on Sunday, the voter turnout rate reached 14.43% in Beirut, 31.39% in Bekaa and 32.25% in Baalbek-Hermel.
Source: Lebanese media (Translated and edited by Al-Manar English Website)
