Government 'determined' to organize municipal elections, assures Hajjar

Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar stated Wednesday that his government is "determined to organize municipal elections in Lebanon on time, adhering to the strictest criteria of transparency and respect for freedoms and democracy."

The minister was responding to a question from the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Anbaa after a visit to Lebanon's mufti, Sheikh Abdellatif Derian, at the Dar al-Fatwa headquarters in Beirut.

The last municipal elections in Lebanon took place in 2016. The elections, originally scheduled for 2022, have been postponed since then, with the previous government citing various reasons related to the crises the country is undergoing. A large number of the thousands of municipal councils have resigned or are unable to fulfill their tasks due to a lack of financial and human resources.

The new Lebanese government, led by Nawaf Salam, was formed on Feb. 8 and will undergo a parliamentary vote of confidence next week.

Hajjar also denied rumors suggesting that the municipal elections might be postponed yet again. "Some electronic sites, citing an official administrative source, wrote that Minister Hajjar is about to announce a technical delay of three or four months for the municipal elections," according to the statement published by the state-run National News Agency (NNA).

"Hajjar's communication office assures that he has not made any statement to that effect and that he is committed, on the contrary, to abiding by the constitutional deadlines," the text continues.