Hezbollah is in favor of legislative elections ‘in March, May’ or on any date ‘that respects the constitution’

BEIRUT — Hezbollah said Sunday that the party is in favor of holding parliamentary elections on time, while some observers fear a postponement or cancelation of the vote in a country mired in political and socio-economic crises largely blamed on the ruling class, including the Shiite party.

“Hezbollah is in favor of holding the parliamentary elections within the constitutional timeframe, in March, May or on another date that respects the constitution,” Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah said while speaking at a political meeting in the South Lebanon area of Bint Jbeil. “We are making all the necessary preparations for the holding of the elections, but some people still have doubts about the holding of these elections. But where do these doubts come from?” the Bint Jbeil MP asked.

“We do not attach importance to these doubts, we are working with our allies to achieve agreements in the electoral districts, and we are waiting for the decision of the Constitutional Council on the appeal of the Free Patriotic Movement against the law that provides for the holding of the parliamentary elections on March 27,” Fadlallah said. “Whatever the decision of the council, we will continue our work, because the elections are an important step in our eyes for a political renewal in Lebanon,” he said.

The MP also said that his party “has an electoral program that will be announced in due course. “Hezbollah has not yet chosen its candidates. When the party leadership does so, we will announce it and make the necessary rounds,” he said.

The elections, originally scheduled for May 2022 but now set for March 27, are seen by many Lebanese as a first stepping stone to the political and social change to which they aspire.

The FPM, led by MP Gebran Bassil and which is allied with Hezbollah, filed an appeal with the Constitutional Council on Nov. 17 against the amendments to the electoral law concerning the date of the vote and expatriate voting terms, raising fears that the elections would be postponed. Relations between the FPM and Hezbollah have been frayed in recent months, and the electoral alliances between the two parties are still not clear.