A meeting of the joint parliamentary committees of the Lebanese Parliament on Oct. 26, 2021. (Source: Lebanese Parliament Flickr)
BEIRUT — In a joint parliamentary committee session Tuesday, MPs voted to maintain their recommendation to hold the upcoming legislative election on March 27, 2022, despite President Michel Aoun’s opposition to moving up the polling date that was originally set in May. The matter will go back to the full Parliament for another vote on Thursday.
Here’s what we know:
• A joint parliamentary committee session convened today to study proposed electoral law amendments and the rescheduling of the upcoming legislative elections from May 8 to March 27. Parliament approved the date change last week, but President Michel Aoun refused to sign off on it.
• Explaining his opposition to early elections dates, Aoun said that thousands of voters who will turn 21 between March 27 and May 8 will not have achieved voting age if elections are pushed back and thus this will deprive them of their right to vote. He also said that inclement weather might make hosting early elections difficult logistically.
• The proposed earlier date was purportedly to avoid campaigning during the holy month of Ramadan, but many analysts have suggested that proponents of early elections were motivated by political calculations.
• During Tuesday’s joint parliamentary committee meeting MP Ziad Hawat (Lebanese Forces/Jbeil) told L’Orient Today that the Lebanese Forces is pushing for the early election date and “will not allow anything to stand as a barrier and block the upcoming legislative election to take place.”