Charbel Calls for One-Week Postponement of Parliamentary Elections

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel requested on Thursday the postponement of the parliamentary elections that were set to be held on June 9 for one week, his office said.

“Charbel referred to the secretariat of the premiership a decree that calls for amending the previous decree that called for holding the polls (on June 9), setting the elections for Sunday June 16, 2013,” said the statement.

Reports said that the caretaker minister also extended the deadline for filing candidacies for the polls to April 16.

The minister had previously set the deadline for the submissions on April 10 and said those seeking to withdraw their candidacies had until April 25.

Rival political parties have yet to agree on a consensual electoral draft-law to govern the polls.

President Michel Suleiman and Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati minister have signed the first decree calling for holding the polls on June 9 based on the 1960 law.

The move has sparked the ire of the Hizbullah-led March 8 coalition which totally rejects the law.