The Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Ahmad Hajjar. (Credit: NNA.)
Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar announced in a late morning press conference that the results of Sunday’s Mount Lebanon municipal elections will be released gradually throughout Monday on the ministry’s website.
He emphasized that the final vote counts had taken place in some regions. Discontented candidates will have a 15-day period after the official announcement of the results to file appeals.
Mount Lebanon Governor, Mahmoud Mekkaoui, who was present during the press conference, had handed over the results to Hajjar earlier in the morning, according to the al-Markazia agency. The minister specified in his press conference that these would be published once verified on-site.
Sunday, May 4 marked the first stage of the municipal elections in Mount Lebanon, in the districts of Baabda, Aley, Chouf, Northern Metn, Kesrouan, and Jbeil. Polling stations closed at 7 p.m., and the vote count began immediately. Some results have already been announced by the electoral machines of the lists (which are entitled to have delegates present during the vote count, which is still done manually), but the official results must come from the Ministry of Interior.
The next stages of the municipal elections will take place on Sunday, May 11 in North Lebanon, Sunday, May 18 in Beirut and in the Bekaa, and Saturday, May 24 for South Lebanon (due to the holiday on the occasion of the liberation of the South on the 25th).
The interior minister praised the holding of these elections, prepared in a record time, without major incidents on the ground despite complaints registered by the central operations room, mostly administrative in nature (non-existent name on the lists, etc.). Hajjar stated that his administration would conduct an assessment of this first Sunday over the next two days to avoid possible pitfalls in the upcoming stages.