Beirut, May 10 (IANS): Lebanon announced that around 60 per cent of registered expats have voted in the country's parliamentary elections.

Between 128,000 and 130,000 expatriates have cast their ballots, out of 225,114 voters registered abroad, Xinhua news agency quoted Hadi Hashem, director of expats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as saying on Monday.

The first round of voting for the Lebanese expats took place on May 6 in nine Arab countries and Iran, and the second phase began on May 8 in 49 countries across Asia, Africa and Europe.

Parliamentary elections are held in Lebanon every four years.

A total of 718 candidates, including 118 females, are in the fray for the polls to the 128-seat Parliament.

Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system allocates seats for its mosaic of religious sects in its Parliament, including Sunni and Shia Muslims, various Christian denominations, and the Druze.

The president must always be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni and the Speaker of Parliament a Shia.

The elections, which are slated for May 15 inside Lebanon, come amid an unprecedented economic crisis that emerged about three years ago, leading to the currency to lose more than 90 per cent of its value since 2019, while also plunging over 70 per cent of the population into poverty.