Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the forthcoming parliamentary election in Lebanon is conducted in a free and fair manner.

We look forward to the holding of parliamentary elections in Lebanon on 6 May 2018. We regularly raise with the Lebanese Government the importance of the elections taking place on time and according to international standards. Our Ambassador to Lebanon discussed this most recently with Foreign Minister Bassil on 15 January and President Aoun on 29 January. The UK is funding a number of programmes to support successful, free and fair Lebanese elections. This includes a project on parliamentary transparency and monitoring and projects to increase the proportion of female MPs by supporting female candidates and supporting advocacy for greater women's representation.