Interior Ministry announces 'strategic plan for the 2025-2028 period'

BEIRUT — Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar announced Thursday the launch of a "strategic plan for the 2025-2028 period," reiterating his intention to hold parliament elections "within the scheduled deadlines," meaning next May, at a time when the vote faces the threat of postponement amid confusion regarding how expatriates will cast their ballots.

"Through this plan, we are launching a clear roadmap for the work of all directorates and administrations under the ministry," Hajjar explained during a news conference.

Hajjar is a member of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's political share. "The work to draft the strategic plan started as soon as we took office, and the mechanism for implementing some of the projects it includes has since been launched," he continued.

Dargham Torbey, a noncommissioned officer on the ministry's team, then laid out the pillars of the plan: "security and stability, civil status, municipalities and local governance, associations and political parties, traffic and road safety, displaced persons and refugees, democracy and elections, crossing points and borders, emergency and crisis management, prisons and detention centers, as well as the fight against drugs."

Hajjar further reiterated his commitment to holding legislative elections on time. "We are working tirelessly to ensure legislative elections are held within the scheduled deadlines, guaranteeing compliance with the law according to the highest standards of transparency and openness to the public, so as to uphold its legal right to access information — a right the ministry committed to from day one, and has made available to all, with neither addition nor omission," he said.

On Monday, three weeks before the deadline for candidate filings, the minister declared that "the election train has started in accordance with the legislation in force, and nothing can stop it except a decision by Parliament."

Nonetheless, the issue of expatriate voting remains a knot yet to be untied: the current electoral law, dating from 2017 and providing for the diaspora to elect six MPs from abroad, is incomplete on this point and cannot be applied without a government decree or a parliamentary law to clarify it.

However, the executive and legislative branches are passing the responsibility back and forth. Moreover, the Salam government, along with the Lebanese Forces bloc in Parliament, wants the diaspora to vote for 128 MPs, as in the last two elections in 2018 and 2022, but this requires parliamentary legislation to suspend the problematic provision of the 2017 law. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri refuses to let the issue be discussed in Parliament.

On this controversy, MP Neemat Frem (independent, Kesrouan) on Thursday sent a series of questions to the government, asking in particular if it would be possible to adhere to the current electoral law with the addition of a 16th district, in the absence of "implementation texts" covering the organization of this approach.

He also argued that even though the Justice Ministry's legislation and consultation commission has issued a (nonbinding) opinion stating that Lebanese expatriates can vote from abroad for all 128 deputies and not just for six dedicated seats, this contradicts the provision requiring expatriates to register if they want to vote from their country of residence.

"Any change to the electoral law or the voting method should trigger the reopening of registration [for the diaspora] and, consequently, an adjustment of deadlines" for the election, he cautioned.

Frem also questioned the cabinet about the lack of proposals from the joint commission between the Interior and Foreign Ministries tasked with applying provisions on expatriate voting, and criticized the government for failing to issue the implementing decree for Article 84 of the electoral law concerning the use of magnetic voter cards.