Fattoush Proposes Parliament Mandate Extension as Berri Awaits Final Decision of Rival MPs Monday

MP Nicolas Fattoush has submitted a proposal on a two-year extension of parliament's mandate without coordinating with any side, the caretaker minister said Sunday, a day before an expected deal on running in the elections under the 1960 law.

“I made my proposal without coordinating with any party,” Fattoush told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) without confirming a report in An Nahar daily if his proposal was aimed at making a two-year extension.

“It is our constitutional duty to avoid vacuum …. The extension of parliament's mandate is aimed at thwarting the ghost of vacuum,” he said.

President Michel Suleiman has rejected a long extension of the legislature's four-year mandate, which expires on June 20.

Baabda palace sources told An Nahar that Suleiman would only accept a short extension to either prepare for the June elections based on the 1960 law or allow the implementation of a new law that the rival parties have failed to agree on.

The sources warned that the president would challenge any law that goes against his convictions.

Fattoush said that Suleiman would either approve the extension law and issue a decree or return it to parliament, which should vote on it with absolute majority so that it becomes implementable within a month.

Speaker Nabih Berri, who had been chairing meetings of a parliamentary subcommittee tasked with agreeing on a new electoral law, gave the MPs until Monday to bring their responses on the timeframe of the extension of parliament's mandate.

Berri's move on Saturday came after the subcommittee's rival lawmakers failed to agree on a new law.

The subcommittee will hold its last meeting at noon Monday to hear their proposals on the extension of the legislature's mandate. If there is lack of agreement on that as well, then the elections would take place based on the 1960 law which was used in the 2009 elections.