Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said that scheduled parliamentary elections will be moved up from May to March 2022. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Responding to a statement by Prime Minister Najib Mikati that elections would be held on March 27 of next year, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) warned that there would not be enough time to hold fair and equitable elections before May.
• In a television interview with LBCI earlier this week, Mikati said that Lebanon's highly anticipated national parliamentary elections would be held on March 27 of next year rather than the previously scheduled May 8. However, Mikati said that the decision has yet to be formalized.
• LADE said in a press conference on Thursday that bringing the date forward would require “extensive measures” and that preparations by the Interior Ministry – which have yet to begin – would already have had to be underway already in order to meet the new target date.
• “The newly appointed supervisory commission should have started its work in preparing and monitoring the electoral process, at the forefront of which is the media campaign for spreading electoral culture and guiding voters, which has not yet begun,” LADE said in a statement.
• Many Lebanese are pinning their hopes on the polls next year to bring in fresh blood, but many remain doubtful that an unchanged electoral system can bring about any significant transformation.
• LADE warned that if this decision is implemented that it would negate “the desired goals and objectives of elections, which are accountability, fair and proper representation, and equal opportunities in exercising the right to vote and to run for office.”