Parliament Extension Almost Certain over Lack of Constitutional Council Quorum

The extension of parliament's four-year mandate is heading to validation this week amid another lack of quorum for the Constitutional Council which should discuss petitions against the extension.

A new meeting for the council was set for next Friday.

The head of the council, Judge Issam Suleiman, has reportedly met with the three judges who have been abstaining from the meetings.

But the talks with the judges – two Shiites and a Druze – were fruitless, the reports said.

Last week, the three council members boycotted for two days in a row the meetings of the 10-member body that should discuss a report drafted by Judge Suleiman on the petitions filed by President Michel Suleiman and the Change and Reform bloc challenging the 17-month extension.

The judges have come under the political pressure of several officials, mainly Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite, and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat, who is a Druze leader.

Both Berri and Jumblat reject holding the parliamentary elections this year under the excuse of lack of security in the country.

The approval or the rejection of the challenges made by the president and the Change and Reform bloc requires the go-ahead of seven out of the council's 10 half-Christian and half-Muslim members.

Also, the body cannot vote without a quorum of eight members.

The lack of quorum would make the 17-month extension law, which was approved by parliament end of May, valid after the end of parliament's mandate this Thursday.