
Members of Parliament Paula Yacoubian and Charbel Massaad submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Council against the extension law for the terms of office for municipal councils, May 14, 2024. (Taken from Charbel Massaad's X account)
BEIRUT — Members of Parliament Paula Yacoubian and Charbel Massaad submitted on Tuesday an appeal to the Constitutional Council against the extension law for the terms of office for municipal councils, the state-run National News Agency reported.
On April 25, the Lebanese Parliament voted to postpone municipal elections until, at the latest, May 31, 2025.
Yacoubian and Massaad submitted the appeal to the Constitutional Council at its headquarters in Hadath, Baabda district, on behalf of other Change MPs, namely Najat Saliba, Firas Hamdan, Melhem Khalaf, Ibrahim Mneimneh, Yassin Yassin, Osama Saad, Nabil Badr and Michel Al-Duwaihi.
The elections, initially postponed in 2022 and again in 2023 due to financial reasons, face further delays amid Israel's attacks on southern Lebanon and ongoing tensions with Hezbollah. Critics suggest Lebanon could seek support from the IMF to facilitate the polls.
Despite a $10 million allocation in the 2024 budget, significant challenges remain, including staffing, identifying polling centers, security deployment, and political reluctance.
On May 7, ten opposition MPs also appealed Parliament's decision to postpone municipal elections, following an earlier appeal filed by the Lebanese Forces (LF) last week. Both appeals were filed with the Constitutional Council.
Among the deputies who signed the appeal were: four Kataeb deputies (Samy and Nadim Gemayel, Salim Sayegh and Elias Hankache), three members of the Renewal Bloc (Michel Moawad, Fouad Makhzoumi and Achraf Rifi), two deputies from the protest movement (Waddah Sadek and Michel Douaihy), and independent Bilal Hocheimy.
"The more appeals there are, the better," Yacoubian said in a statement. "This is a healthy phenomenon, and we must always resort to the Constitutional Council every time there is a coup and a violation of the Constitution in Lebanon, a complete coup against the democratic system."
"Last year, they gave weak excuses, and this time the argument is bigger. There is a war in the South. We hope that the Constitutional Council urges Parliament not to underestimate constitutional entitlements like the municipal elections."
Caretaker Interior Ministry Bassam Mawlawi had proposed postponing elections in insecure areas, but this is contested by Hezbollah and Amal Movement, citing concerns about holding elections anywhere in the country while the two parties are engaged in fighting Israel along the southern border.
MP Massaad, cited by NNA, said that there are many municipalities in the country that are "ineffective," functioning poorly, and needing to be replaced. "We also have an existential crisis, which is the crisis of the Syrian presence, and municipalities play an effective role in this issue."
The EU's €1 billion
Parliament is scheduled to convene tomorrow to discuss the EU financial deal of €1 billion, designed to strengthen basic services such as education and health. Explicit in the deal was the understanding that Lebanon would, in turn, tackle illegal migration from Lebanese shores into Europe.
Asked whether she is participating in tomorrow's Parliament session, Yacoubian said: “A large number of us will participate. There must be a clear plan for the return of the displaced.”
Politicians of all stripes regularly call for the repatriation and deportation of Syrians, of which there are an estimated 1.5 million who fled to Lebanon as refugees from the war in Syria, which continues to ravage parts of the country more than a decade later. They claim that security conditions allow for such a return, while the United Nations and other rights groups warn that this is not the case.