Election campaign posters on display ahead of the 2022 polls. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The Supervisory Commission for Elections, which monitored the 2022 parliamentary polls, said Tuesday that it has referred several media outlets to the Publications Court for violating the commission’s rules for covering the elections.
Here’s what we know:
• In a statement, the commission said that the violations that some media outlets made during the elections period were “defamation and slander, violating the rules for polling, hate speech, and breaking the silence period.” Contacted by L’Orient Today, a spokesperson for the commission said they could not reveal which media outlets had been referred to the court.
• The commission also said it has submitted 25 violations by election candidates to the court. These violations include “bribery, obstruction of the election process and other criminal offenses.”
• The commission went on to say that it has submitted to the Interior Ministry the lists and candidates who have not submitted information about their election campaign activities. The spokesperson for the commission explained that the information that should be submitted includes the amount they spent and what it was spent on. He also indicated that the penalty is LL1 million for every day of delay after the deadline, which was May 17.