The entrance to the seat of the Constitutional Council. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Multiple unsuccessful candidates in the 2022 parliamentary elections, including Elie Charbachi (Beirut I) and former MP Faisal Karami, (North II) filed appeals to the Constitutional Council on Tuesday against those who won their seats, two days before the deadline for filing such appeals.
Here’s what we know:
• According to the Lebanese Forces website, Charbachi, the unsuccessful Lebanese Forces candidate for the Christian minorities seat in Beirut I, presented an appeal to the Constitutional Council on Tuesday against Cynthia Zarazir, who won the seat.
• Karami’s lawyer meanwhile confirmed to L’Orient Today that he has filed an appeal before the Constitutional Council against MPs Ramy Finge, Ihab Matar and Firas Salloum.
• Jad Ghosn told L’Orient Today on Tuesday that he is also going to file an appeal tomorrow before the Constitutional Council. Ghosn explained that he had filed a complaint before the Shura Council after the Interior Ministry denied him access to reports on the detailed election results for every ballout box in the Mount Lebanon II district, the voter list for the district, a picture of all the votes that were canceled in all the ballot boxes of the district, and the results of each ballot box in the district including the expat voting. “We asked for these results to see where the discrepancies are between the results of each town and the final l results,” Ghosn said. He also said that yesterday the Shura Council ordered the Interior Ministry to hand over the information his team has requested. “Unfortunately, handing this information right now [from the Interior Ministry] wouldn’t allow us to have the time needed to integrate the information into our complaint, but we will throughout the case.” Ghosn's list was 88 votes away from winning a seat in Mount Lebanon II, while Ghosn garnered more preferential votes than many of the winning candidates.
• Rizk Zgheib, lawyer and lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Saint Joseph University had told L’Orient-Le Jour last month that appeals can be brought not only against the newly elected MPs, but also against the list with which they ran. Once the case has been submitted to the Constitutional Council, “the opposing party will then be immediately notified and will have 15 days to respond,” Zgheib said, adding that at the same time, the Constitutional Council will appoint a rapporteur from among its members to study the cases presented.” Zgheib also said that the rapporteur has broad investigative powers: hearing officials, checking the contents of the ballot boxes, counting the ballots … He has three months to do this.”
Abby Sewell contributed additional reporting.