During the Syrian occupation of Lebanon (1990-2005), the Saudi regime planned controlling the entire political system in Lebanon depending on their alliance with the Syrian troops. The plan was to send the opposing Lebanese outside the country where they cannot vote, and to replace them with pro-Saudi voters by naturalizing hundreds of thousands of Sunni-Muslims.
“Lebanese living abroad should not be able to vote from outside the country, and only those who will vote for Hariri and other pro-Saudi groups should come to Lebanon to vote in general elections in order to re-produce a pro-Saudi majority in the parliament.”, was the plan orchestrated by pro-Saudi [the later] Rafiq Hariri.
As the Lebanese constitution requires being physically in Lebanon in order to participate in general elections, this will leave the voters under the mercy of the oil money of Saudi Arabia to pay travel expenses only for those who would vote for its proxy candidates.
In the mid 1990's, and during the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, the Syrian regime was brainstorming with its collaborating principals in Lebanon on how to submit the Lebanese population to the corrupted pro-Syrian government in Lebanon. However, pro-Syrian Premier then Rafik Hariri, came with the utmost solution that changed the country’s face for decades to come.
Lebanon is a country that practiced democracy for decades, and it was not easy to simply impose a dictatorship similar to the regimes in neighboring Middle Eastern countries. Since the seats in the Lebanese parliament in Lebanon are divided equally between Christians and Muslims, and since the majority of the movements opposing the Syrian homogony over Lebanon were form the Christians, the plan was to prevent the Christian voters from voting.
Such steps were encouraged by Saudi Arabia ( in which Rafik Hariri himself held its citizenship), that was backing the Syrian control over Lebanon. Over a million Lebanese (out of the four million totaling the population of Lebanon) were forced to leave the country between 1990-2005. The majority of those who left the country were Christians.Later, the Pro-Syrian government of Lebanon led by Rafik Hariri naturalized about 400,000 non-Lebanese between 1994-1996, and granted them the right to vote. The majority of those “new Lebanese” were Sunni Muslims form Syrian and Palestinian origins.
After the Syrian-Saudi deal on Lebanon was broken in 2005, and with the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon late April 2005, Saudi Arabia decided to use Saed Hariri (sun of murdered Rafiq Hariri) to control Lebanon. They fought the largest Christian Block in the Lebanese Parliament led by General Michel Aoun to clear the way for installing the Saudi homogony over Lebanon as a replacement of the Syrian homogony.General Aoun’s block (also known as Change and Reform Block) drafted several acts in the Lebanese parliament to allow the Lebanese in Diaspora to vote from the countries in which they reside in overseas, and to allow those who left the country decades earlier to claim their citizenship. However, the pro-Saudi MP’s turned such drafts down in February of 2009, in order to keep the voters in Diaspora under the mercy of Saudi oil dollars.
As the plans of controlling Lebanon have been working perfectly for the Saudis and their allies/proxies in Lebanon, the same group who stood against the Syrian-Saudi homogony on Lebanon between 1990-2005, continues to confront the Saudi control against Lebanon. While Saudi Arabia is spending millions of dollars world-wide through financing those who will vote for its allies; Hariri-Joumblat-Geagea, the Lebanese opposition led by General Michel Aoun is working with limited resources, yet with the same inspired freedom fighters who liberated Lebanon from the Syrian occupation, to maintain the freedom of Lebanon.
