Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib

Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib indicated that the turnout of Lebanese voters in the Arab countries reached 60%, with nearly 18,000 ballots cast.

During a press conference after polling stations were closed in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Syria, Bahrain, Jordan, and Iraq, he said that Syria saw the highest voter turnout of 84% followed by Iran with 74%.

He went on to say that a few flaws were recorded in a number of countries, but they were dealt with immediately and as per requirements.

“We sealed the boxes with red wax, and there is a GPS inside them,” he stressed.

Bou Habib stressed that the role of the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs ends upon the arrival of the ballot boxes at Beirut airport, and the Ministry of Interior will take over from there.

On Friday, expatriates in nine Arab countries - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Syria, the Sultanate of Oman, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq - and Iran cast ballots.

65% of Tehran's 642 registered voters had already voted and approximately 30% of over 13,000 registered voters in Saudi Arabia had voted by Friday afternoon, according to NNA.

On Sunday, voting will take place in 48 other countries.

See more: Lebanese expats voting for the 2022 elections

More than 225,000 people have registered to vote overseas, up from around 92,000 in the 2018 elections, though only 50,000 of them voted at the time.

Once voting is completed, officials will ship the ballot boxes to Lebanon's Central Bank via private companies. After the May 15 elections, votes will be counted.