Parliament Agrees to Suspend Deadline for Elections Nominations amid National Struggle Front Boycott
Parliament agreed on Wednesday to suspend the deadline for submitting nominations for the parliamentary elections.
It agreed to suspend the deadline to May 19.
The session, headed by Speaker Nabih Berri, was attended by all political blocs, except the National Struggle Front of MP Walid Jumblat.
Independent MPs Butros Harb and Nicolas Fattoush voiced their objection to the parliament's decision.
The draft law calls for setting the deadline for submitting nominations to three weeks before the elections date, reported MTV.
It also allows candidates who seek to withdraw their nominations to do so two weeks before the polls, said LBCI television.
Later on Wednesday, President Michel Suleiman announced on Twitter that he will sign the law to "allow the approval of a modern electoral law based on proportional representation."
"Returning the law to parliament will lead to the uncontested win of the candidates (who have already submitted their requests) given the fact that the deadline is approaching and we might not be able to approve a new law," Suleiman explained.
“Signing the law and issuing it do not prevent examining whether it is compatible with the democratic principles and the articles of the Lebanese constitution,” the president added.
Prior to the session, Berri held a series of phone calls and meetings at his office to set the stage for consensus on the required amendments of articles in the 1960 electoral law.
Jumblat had informed Berri in a meeting of his rejection to suspend the deadlines set by the 1960 law.
An initial agreement to suspend the deadlines to May 19 was reached on Tuesday at a meeting held by parliament's bureau and attended by Caretaker Premier Najib Miqati, lawmakers from the Lebanese Forces and the Phalange, and Marada movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh.
But the implementation of the deal hinges on the session of the parliament which is divided into two camps.
Al-Mustaqbal bloc, the National Struggle Front and March 14 independent MPs say the deadline for the process of submitting candidacies should be extended under the 1960 law until the rival sides reach an agreement on a new law.
President Michel Suleiman is also a staunch supporter of the postponement of the deadline. His sources told An Nahar newspaper that a suspension was not possible given that the 1960 law sets 12 to 14 deadlines.
Article 49 that sets the deadline for the announcement of candidacies should be amended through the extension of this deadline, they said.
But the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange, Amal, Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement call for the suspension of the deadlines.
The head of parliament's justice committee, MP Robert Ghanem, warned against the suspension, saying it makes the 1960 law obsolete.
But such a move would not affect the submission of candidacies that have been made so far, he told An Nahar newspaper. “So the new proposal should have a retroactive effect to annul these nominations.”
Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has said that 50 people have so far announced their candidacies based on the 1960 law.
Parliamentary sources also warned against the suspension of the deadlines, saying such a move would make the 1960 law obsolete and the one before it known as the 2000 Ghazi Kanaan law would become valid.
But Harb said he drafted a proposal along with several lawmakers to suspend the deadlines while keeping the 1960 law valid for the parliamentary elections if the rival parties failed to agree on a new law.
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