Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea said on Tuesday via Twitter that he opposes the use of “megacenters,” proposed voting centers that would allow citizens to cast their ballots without returning to their original villages, as a “pretext to delay” the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Here’s what we know:
• Geagea said that the Gebran Bassil-led Free Patriotic Movement “know the impossibility” of implementing megacenters for the upcoming parliamentary elections, basing this on “the positions taken by FPM ministers during the first ministerial committee meeting to study the feasibility of utilizing megacenters.”
• The LF head added that his party “was the first to demand megacenters” and that they will “continue to call for their adoption” but refuse to have them used as “a pretext to delay or disrupt” the elections.
• Bassil has stated that there are “no excuses” to not set up megacenters for the 15 May elections.
• On Monday, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi expressed his support for the megacenter project despite the existing obstacles during a meeting with Prime Minister Nagib Mikati.
• Acting Information Minister Abbas Halabi said after March 4’s cabinet session that “Cabinet decided to form a committee comprised of the ministers of justice, culture, interior, finance, tourism, communications and education to draft a vision for the megacenter.”
• The megacenter proposal is expected to be discussed during the upcoming cabinet session on Thursday.