Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab. Credit: NNA
BEIRUT — Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab said Friday after a meeting of Parliament’s bureau that there is “consensus” to extend its mandate by two years, a situation he said is “justified” by Lebanon’s current circumstances.
“Parliament Speaker Berri agreed to hold a plenary session on Monday to present three draft laws extending Parliament’s mandate,” Bou Saab said. He acknowledged that “the current electoral law has shown it contains many problems” and said it “can be amended over the next two years.”
President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had pushed for parliamentary elections to be held on schedule in May. But the recent Israeli-U.S. military campaign on Iran, and the subsequent escalation between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon, have changed the circumstances.
According to information from L’Orient-Le Jour, independent Kesrouan MP Neemat Frem authored one of the draft laws, stating that the legislature should be extended until the current war ends, provided the postponement does not exceed two years.
For months, MPs have been divided over the contentious issue of expatriate voting, suggesting even before the latest military escalation that the election could be postponed. The current electoral law provides for the creation of six seats specifically for expatriates, while a parliamentary majority has pushed to amend the article to allow expatriates to vote for any of the 128 seats according to their home region in Lebanon.
However, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri still refuses to put the debate on the agenda, even though the provision creating six diaspora seats lacks an implementation mechanism, making it inapplicable.
On two occasions, ahead of the 2018 and 2022 elections, Parliament suspended Article 112, allowing expatriate voters to cast ballots in Lebanon’s electoral districts instead.
