Suleiman, Miqati Decide to Refer Electoral Decree to Concerned Bodies, Hold Elections on June 9
President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati agreed on Thursday to hold the parliamentary elections on June 9.
"President Suleiman and I have agreed to sign the decree calling on the electoral bodies to hold the elections on June 9,” Miqati told LBCI television.
The PM remarked: “The 1960's electoral law is in force and I'm in charge of applying it”.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel informed LBCI that signing the decree will take place before March 11.
"The country's security situation, however, might affect going through with the elections,” he expressed.
Concerning the electoral law, Charbel noted: “The parliament can cancel the electoral law it had voted on”.
The rival parties are yet to agree on a draft-law after the adoption of the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal by the joint parliamentary committees which drew a sharp debate among the opposition's faction and with rival coalitions.
The polls are likely to be postponed if the parliament gives the green light to the proposal that divides Lebanon into a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.
But the draft-law has been rejected by al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front of Walid Jumblat, and the March 14 opposition’s Christian independent MPs. It has been also criticized by President Suleiman and PM Miqati.
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