Candidacies to Elections Pour into the Interior Ministry ahead of Deadline

Several officials submitted on Friday their candidacies to the upcoming parliamentary polls, including the Free Patriotic Movement, the AMAL movement, the March 14 Independent MPs, the Lebanese Forces and Hizbullah, despite strong objections over the adoption of the 1960 electoral law at the polls to avoid uncontested victories.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui and several members of the party filed their electoral candidacies.

“We were hoping to file our candidacies according to the Orthodox Gathering draft,” Sehnaoui told reporters.

MTV reported later on that members of Speaker Nabih Berri's parliamentary bloc and others from the Marada movement, which is lead by Suleiman Franjeih, also submitted their candidacies.

Berri delegated his adviser Ali Hamdan to the ministry to file his candidacy on his behalf.

Four National Liberal Party officials submitted their candidacies, however, head of the party Dori Chamoun is expected to file his request to run for elections on Monday.

March 14 Independent MP Butros Harb also filed his candidacy to the polls, the NNA said.

Later 26 members of the Lebanese Forces arrived at the Interior Ministry to submit their candidacies.

In the afternoon, Hizbullah submitted the candidacies of 14 nominees who will run in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The party nominated all its current MPs in the Loyalty to Resistance bloc without any changes.

The NNA noted that the total number of nominations submitted on Friday has reached 240.

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.

Monday is the deadline for candidates to file their requests to run for the elections according to the 1960 law. Several has already submitted their candidacies.