Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel announced the Interior Ministry will resume election registration on Monday, but he said the polls could not be held on the schedule under the current 1960 law.
“Tomorrow on Monday I will allow hopefuls to submit their candidacies again until Saturday and I will ask the government to convene to make the needed allocations for elections and form an election supervisory committee,” Charbel said in remarks published by a local media outlet Sunday.
Parliament’s term expires on June 20. MPs passed a draft law last month suspending candidacies under the 1960 law, opposed by most parties, until May 19 to find an agreement over a new electoral law. The government has not made the financial allocations needed for a vote and it has not formed the a supervisory committee that is required to hold elections.
Speaking to other media outlets, Charbel said it was possible to hold the polls by the end of June rather than June 16 which is their scheduled date.
“I will hold elections based on the current law, and let everyone assume his responsibility,” Charbel said.
Members of a parliamentary subcommittee studying various electoral laws plan to hold a decisive session Monday. Media reports said members of the subcommittee would announce their stance on whether they supported extending Parliament’s term instead of contesting the elections under the current law.
A local newspaper quoted sources close to President Michel Sleiman as saying that he would only accept a technical delay for polls to make preparations for holding elections either under a new law or the 1960 law.
In case Parliament endorsed a draft law to extend its term that Sleiman opposed, the sources continued, the president would either return the draft law to Parliament or challenge it before the Constitutional Council.
