Amal Movement MP Ali Hassan Khalil in Parliament. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Addressing the leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, Amal Movement MP, Ali Hassan Khalil, pointed out on Monday that "those who want to obstruct the parliamentary elections are the ones trying to tie them to ... amendments to the current law," the state-run National News Agency reported.
The parliament speaker and leader of the Amal Movement, Nabih Berri, categorically refuses to put on the agenda of any plenary session an amendment to the electoral law sent by the Cabinet to Parliament to allow the Lebanese diaspora to vote for all 128 MPs, while Article 112 of the current legislation limits their vote to only six seats.
Geagea, who has been calling for the amendment of Article 112 along with other political parties, said that Berri “crossed every line" by refusing to place either the government’s bill or the amendment draft law on Parliament meeting agendas, even though most MPs have been pushing for it.
He also accused the speaker of working to “torpedo the legislative elections," as fears of a postponed election grow among political circles.
"Holding the parliamentary elections on time is a fixed matter that is not up for discussion, and it is not subject to political blackmail or bidding," Khalil, Berri's second-in-command, said on Monday from the Lebanese Parliament.
He pointed out that “those who want to obstruct the elections are the ones trying to tie them to new conditions, amendments to the current law,and the creation of actual pretexts for postponement, instead of preparing to contest this electoral battle and pressuring the government to complete the required administrative procedures.”
“Everyone knows — and Geagea first among them — that this law is the product of a consensus. In the past, there was broad agreement on it, and the Lebanese Forces were at the heart of it...
"What is happening today is not a technical correction, nor a democratic reform, nor genuine concern for expatriates and their votes; rather, it is an attempt to exploit a political moment in the absence of equal opportunities for candidates and voters to express their opinions in this election," Khalil added.
"Amendments to the electoral law must be carefully studied," he said, recalling that the "Lebanese Forces bloc was the first to obstruct discussion of a new electoral law" proposed by the Amal Movement bloc years ago.
Khalil noted that Berri has the "constitutional, legal and procedural authority" to convene sessions.
"Whoever truly wants elections must stop using them as a weapon to paralyze institutions and must cease escalating rhetoric whenever it suits the ballot boxes," he concluded.
