More than 100 violations have been recorded and four people arrested during the fourth and final round of elections in north Lebanon Sunday, authorities and a monitoring group said.
The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) said in an initial report issued about halfway through the voting that 105 violations were recorded.
Forty-five percent of the violations were recorded in Tripoli, LADE said, noting that four campaign offices in the city were paying voters to cast ballots for their candidates.
The offices were located in the Bab al-Tabbaneh, Daftar, Nejmeh and Bab al-Ramel neighborhoods, the report said.
Nineteen percent of the total violations took place in the Akkar governorate, while 9.5 percent were in Koura, 8.5 percent in Bsharri, 7 percent in Minyeh-Dinnieh, 7 percent in Zghorta, and 4 percent in Batroun.
The report also said that some polling stations took slightly long to open. The polls opened at 7 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m.
The majority of the violations concentrated on campaigning inside or around polling stations, which was followed by the issue of polling stations not being equipped to receive people with disabilities.
The state-run National News Agency reported Sunday that two people suspected of paying bribes were arrested in the Zghorta district town of Aito.
Meanwhile the Interior Ministry said that two campaign delegates in the Akkar village of Ayyat were arrested for misconduct.
There are 850,005 eligible voters in North Lebanon and Akkar.
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