Report: Berri Directs his Parliamentary Bloc to File Electoral Candidacies

Development and Liberation bloc MPs are expected to submit their candidacies on Friday to run for the upcoming parliamentary election, media reports said.

According to An Nahar newspaper, the head of the AMAL movement Speaker Nabih Berri called on lawmakers affiliated in his bloc to file their electoral candidacies on Friday to prevent any constitutional vacuum.

The submission of their candidacies for the polls will be based on the controversial 1960 law that considers the qada an electoral district and is based on the winner-takes-all system.

A parliament session was set to convene on May 15 in order to vote on the proposal, but the meeting was never held due to a lack of quorum.

In its eighth round of talks, the parliamentary electoral subcommittee failed again on Monday to reach an agreement over a new electoral law as Berri did not set a date for a new session.

This failure has raised fears of a political vacuum in Lebanon or that the parliamentary elections will be held according to the 1960 law or that the term of the current parliament will be extended.

An Nahar reported that Berri is exerting efforts to reach common ground with the rival parties over the timeframe of extending the parliament's tenure.

The speaker rejects extending the mandate of the parliament’s by six months as the tension in the country will not enable the government to hold normal elections.