Berri says elections on time, law can't be amended
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri stressed Friday that the May 2026 parliamentary elections will be held on time.
Berri added that “the remaining time does not allow for any amendment” of the electoral law, hinting that expats are supposed to vote for six newly-introduced seats and not the current 128 seats.
The Speaker also wondered “how those who were with the current electoral law and defended it in the past are trying to object against it today.”
Moreover, Berri said that “Lebanon can confront everything through its unity and can persevere and continue with the unity of its sons.”
Expats had voted heavily in favor of the opposition during the 2018 and 2022 parliamentary elections. Hezbollah and the Amal Movement argue that they do not enjoy the same campaigning freedom that the other parties enjoy abroad and have thus deemed the six newly-introduced seats as the lesser of two evils.
It is still unclear how the voting for the six seats will take place seeing as there is no clear mechanism distributing the seats on sects and continents.
The Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and some Change and independent MPs are meanwhile calling for allowing expats to vote for the current 128 seats as happened in the 2018 and 2022 elections. The law had been amended back then to allow for the postponement of the introduction of the six new seats.
Source: Naharnet
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