Lebanon’s Cabinet is expected to convene on Wednesday to address several key files, including a controversial electricity file, before it turns into a caretaker government on May 20, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.
The meeting will take place at the Baabda Palace to “tackle and place several files on the solution track before the government turns into a caretaker cabinet,” well-informed sources told the daily.
The Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement have not yet disclosed whether they will re-elect Speaker Nabih Berrii for a sixth term, as they prepare for consultative meetings with their party members.
In that regard, Foreign Minister and FPM chief Jebran Bassil assured that each positive “signal” from Berri’s end (AMAL Movement chief) will be met by a similar one from the FPM’s side.
The new parliament will hold a session on May 22 to re-elect AMAL Movement leader Nabih Berri to a sixth term as Parliament Speaker, a media report said.
"The Parliament Bureau will soon convene under the most senior MP, Michel Murr, to make the necessary preparations ahead of a session to elect a new speaker," al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday, noting that "there are confirmed indications that Berri will be re-elected."
"The election session will likely be held on May 22," the daily added.
Hizbullah was poised to seal a win in Lebanon Monday with results for the decade's first general election expected to confirm the Iran-backed party as the main winner. The polls were also marked by a low turnout of 49.2 percent and the emergence of a civil society movement challenging Lebanon's oligarchs that could clinch a pair of seats in parliament.
Lebanon's sectarian-based power-sharing politics mean no single alliance in the 128-seat parliament will enjoy a stable majority and analysts expect a fragile status quo to be preserved.
Less than half of Lebanon's electorate voted in Sunday's general elections, according to a provisional turnout figure of 49.2 percent announced by Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq.
The figure marked a drop from the 54 percent of voters who cast a ballot in 2009, the last time Lebanon elected its parliament.
"This is a new law and voters were not familiar with it, nor were the heads of polling stations," Mashnouq said in a news conference. "Voting operations were very slow."
The United Nations on Monday urged Lebanon's politicians to act responsibly to protect Lebanon's stability following elections that saw Hizbullah and its allies make gains.
"We hope that all Lebanese political stakeholders will continue to act responsibly in the days following polling to protect Lebanon's stability, which should include the swift formation of a government," said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Hizbullah is set to cement its dominance in Lebanon after the party of its main rival, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, suffered heavy losses.
Hezbollah y sus aliados políticos obtuvieron poco más de la mitad de los escaños en las elecciones parlamentarias en Líbano, según resultados no oficiales, en un impulso para un movimiento respaldado por Irán que se opone fuertemente a Israel y que pone de relieve la creciente influencia de Teherán en la región.
Considerado como un grupo terrorista por Estados Unidos, el grupo chií Hezbollah, fuertemente armado, ha incrementado su poder desde que se involucró en la guerra en Siria para respaldar al presidente Bashar al-Assad en 2012.
El secretario general del partido-milicia chií libanés Hezbolá, Hasán Nasralá, ha destacado este lunes la "victoria moral y política" de la formación y sus aliados en las elecciones parlamentarias celebradas el domingo en el país.
En sus primeras declaraciones tras las elecciones, Nasralá ha subrayado que "completar las elecciones ya es una victoria en sí misma", al tiempo que ha manifestado que "es una victoria para todos los libaneses que participaron en los comicios".
Lebanon is set to hold its first parliamentary vote in nearly a decade on May 6, after a drawn-out political stalemate finally produced a new electoral law in 2017. The new system maintains the sectarian seat allocation in the 128-member parliament, but swaps out the decades-old plurality system for a proportional list-based one. Below are the most prominent elements of the law.
- Districts - The new law reduces the number of voting districts from 26 to 15.
Few countries are as vulnerable to the Middle East's mayhem as Lebanon, which has taken in a million refugees from the catastrophic war in neighboring Syria, seen the Iran-backed Hizbullah party embroiled in that war and watched Saudi Arabia try to oust its prime minister.
European Union election monitors are deploying around Lebanon, ahead of the country's first parliamentary elections in nearly a decade.
Over a hundred observers from European Union countries, as well as Norway and Sweden, will be working during the elections, according to the EU Election Observation Mission in Lebanon.
The observers were invited by the Lebanese government to monitor and assess the voting scheduled for Sunday.
Elena Valenciano, Lebanon chief observer for the mission, said political parties in Lebanon are "really committed to have good elections."
Lebanon’s government will convene in a final meeting before the country launches its general elections on Sunday, to discuss some files described as “non controversial” amid expectations it is going to be “calm and short”, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.
The Cabinet, convening at Baabda Palace, will discuss “two reports presented by the ministers of defence and interior, highlighting the security measures ahead of the elections and the security and military apparatuses tasked with preserving a safe and smooth electoral process,” sources told the daily.
El Líbano acude a las urnas el próximo domingo para renovar el Parlamento por primera vez desde 2009, al amparo de una nueva ley electoral de efectos inciertos, en un país frágil por sus equilibrios confesionales y por las influencias de las potencias regionales.
Las nuevas reglas electorales, aprobadas en 2017 tras arduas negociaciones, establecen un sistema proporcional, pero mantienen la división del electorado en función de su religión, algo que, en opinión de algunos observadores, garantiza que las tradicionales familias políticas libanesas mantengan el poder.
A couple of days before Lebanon launches its general elections, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq urged voters and candidates on Wednesday to “abide by the law” to ensure a smooth electoral process.
“Our responsibility is to watch ourselves, and to ensure a calm electoral process similar to the municipal elections. We must learn from the elections abroad,” said Mashnouq from Zahle Serail in Eastern Lebanon.
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said in a press conference Monday that the turnout rate for Lebanese expats voting reached 59%, stressing that it “reflects the enthusiasm of Lebanese.”
In a press conference he held at the foreign ministry concluding the country’s expats voting, Bassil said: “Lebanese expat voting has reflected the enthusiasm and interest of Lebanese,” to practice their national right, “although some media outlets were hinting otherwise.”
“Official turnout statistics have shown 59% of people registered have cast their votes,” he said.
Numerosas plataformas ciudadanas y candidatos independientes aspiran a llegar al Parlamento en las elecciones legislativas del 6 de mayo, las primeras en el país en casi una década.
As Lebanon gears for its second day of Lebanese expats voting on Sunday, the United States’ foreign ministry said the US “will not interfere in the right of Lebanese to vote,” MTV reported Saturday.
“The US administration will not interfere in the Lebanese right to vote,” a US source from the US foreign ministry told the television station on condition of anonymity.
MTV added that around 10,000 Lebanese expats are set to cast their votes on Sunday.
Expatriates kicked off Lebanon's parliamentary polls by voting abroad on Friday, a first for the small country's huge diaspora.
The 12,611 Lebanese voters registered in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Egypt will be the first to cast ballots for the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament.
The overall voter turnout was at 48.11% at 5:25 pm Beirut time according to the National News Agency.
Voters elsewhere in the world will vote on Sunday, a week before the May 6 polling in Lebanon, which has not renewed its parliament since 2009.
