The Foreign Ministry launched an elections information hotline for expat voters on Wednesday, as Lebanon gears up for its first elections that will allow citizens to vote from abroad.

More than 85,000 Lebanese citizens in dozens of countries around the world are registered to vote in parliamentary elections early next month, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said in November, just one month after an online registration site opened.

However, the expat voting process has been the subject of some criticism in recent weeks, as government officials have raised doubts about its transparency.