Polls have opened in Lebanon, kicking off the country’s first parliamentary elections in nearly a decade.
Sunday’s vote sees 583 candidates compete for the 128 seats in parliament through 77 rival lists, spread across 15 districts.
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).
Lebanese Army forces were also deployed across the country on Saturday in preparation for the election and its aftermath.
In the south of the country, Hezbollah called on media outlets to coordinate with the movement if they wished to report in districts controlled by the group, such as Beirut’s southern suburbs, Baalbeck-Hermel in addition to the south, The Daily Star reported on Friday.
The elections are taking place for the first time after nine years of political turbulences that left the country without a president for two years, and saw parliament extend its tenure several times.
© Agencies
