Lebanese in Brazil will not vote come May

The Lebanese parliamentary elections on May 6 are bound to make history, as, for the first time ever, Lebanese residing abroad have been granted the right to vote. Their appetite to do so, however, has so far appeared to be rather humble. In total, 82,900 Lebanese abroad have registered to vote, according to  the official Lebanese government website. Numbers quoted in The Monthly, a publication by Information International, a Beirut-based research and consultancy firm, cite 45,827 Christians and 38,329 Muslims registered (the discrepancy in the overall total is likely caused by the difference in those who registered versus those registrations that were accepted). Some 60 percent of registered Lebanese voters abroad live in Australia, Canada, the US, France, and Germany—in that order. Only 2,106 Lebanese, or 2.5 percent, registered in Brazil, which may come as a surprise, given the country’s status as the world’s “second Lebanon.” “Estimates vary slightly, but