According to Kayyal, the phenomenon is, in fact, quite real and one of the many consequences of the country's outdated and disorganized system of processing death certificates.
As a mukhtar, Kayyal is responsible for sending the completed death certificate forms to the Interior Ministry for administrative purposes.
As a result, many death certificates received by the Interior Ministry, have never reached the Public Health Ministry.
While fraudulent voting is one serious consequence of a poorly organized death certificate system, it is hardly the only one.
Oueidat agreed, noting that in her years of work, she had analyzed over 65,000 death certificates and witnessed "severe problems" in recording causes of death.
Death certificates were not introduced in Lebanon until 1924 .
According to Sibai's research, half of the city's death certificates collected between 1974 and 1998 were not certified by a physician.
With the majority of deaths occurring at homes, it is rare that a physician is immediately called upon to record the cause of death, Sibai added.
Commonly, a physician close to the family may be called upon to sign off on the death certificate despite never having examined the body.
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