Representatives Bilal Abdullah, Rola Al-Tabash, Qassem Hashem, Akram Shehaieb, Sami Fatfat, Jihad Al-Samad, Osama Saad, Hadi Abu Al-Hassan, and Faisal Al-Sayegh submitted a law proposal to the House of Representatives, to amend Article 21 of the constitution, i.e. lowering the voting age to 18 years.
Suggestion text:
Article One: Article 21 of the Lebanese Constitution is amended to become as follows:
Article 21: Eligibility to vote
Every Lebanese national who has reached the age of 18, has the right to be a voter, provided that he fulfills the conditions required by the electoral law.
Article Two: This law shall be effective immediately upon its publication in the Official Gazette.
Reasons:
The compelling reasons stated: “Since the Lebanese constitution has decided that the voting age is 21 years, since 1921, that is, a hundred years ago.
And since the political life in Lebanon has undergone many developments as well as social conditions, not to mention the development that has taken place in society in terms of intellectual development and awareness that the youth enjoy frully.
Since the work of the House of Representatives is to legislate and monitor the executive authority, which means that the first task is concerned with the future, which is the youth, and the second task of the Council also means their future, especially the economic one.
And since the commitment age in Lebanon is 18 years, so that when a citizen reaches this age, he becomes fully responsible for his actions.
Since this amendment is a persistent and rightful demand of the younger generation, it has clearly emerged recently.
For the aforementioned reasons, and to bring reassurance to the youth by involving them in the decision regarding their future in Lebanon, we came with our proposal to amend Article 21 of the Constitution, hoping that the Honorable Council would discuss it and refer it to the Council of Ministers based on Article 77 of the Constitution.