Municipalities election to be held in May, Mawlawi says

BEIRUT — Caretaker Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi assured on Thursday that the municipal and mokhtar (local officials responsible for records) elections, scheduled for May 31, 2023, would be held on time, the state-run National News Agency reported.

This election was initially scheduled to take place last May, in parallel with the parliamentary elections, but ended up being postponed.

"The municipal elections, scheduled for May, will not be postponed," Mawlawi said, after a meeting in Bkirki with the Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai. "We have already begun preparations," he added.

The government had approved in March a proposal to postpone the municipal elections, which were originally scheduled to be held shortly after the May 15, 2022 legislative elections, which initially were also threatened with postponement on several occasions, due to several considerations, such as the issue of electricity supply to polling stations or the diaspora vote.

Mawlawi also addressed the issue of the presidential election and called for the election of a head of state as soon as possible. The country is facing a dual power vacuum at the executive level. The country was left without a president after the end of Michel Aoun's mandate on Oct. 31, while the government of Najib Mikati remains in a caretaker mode.

"We hope that a new president will be elected in order to restore the balance of power, an issue on which Archbishop Rai insisted," said the caretaker interior minister.

Meanwhile, he also assured that his ministry is working "in close collaboration with the law enforcement agencies during the holiday season."

Mawlawi had announced a security plan for Lebanon in mid-December, in the run-up to the Christmas and New Year holidays, while the country reels from a deepening economic collapse that has been ongoing since 2019.

This plan, however, did not prevent a series of recent security incidents, including several fatal shootings.