Berri Warns Elections in Danger over Security Situation
Speaker Nabih Berri warned on Friday that the security chaos was putting the parliamentary elections in great danger and reiterated that rival lawmakers had until the end of April to agree on a vote law.
“The polls are in danger over the security situation,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper.
He warned Lebanon's rival parties not to stand idle over the polls that are approaching in spring and threatening to be “hotter” than the Arab Spring if they don't take place.
Berri stressed the need for “political reassurance in the country that brings a favorable security (situation) and helps the elections take place.”
Asked about requests by the Free Patriotic Movement to call for a parliamentary session to adopt the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal, Berri said it is up to him to decide when to invite for a General Assembly.
But the speaker warned that he would invite MPs for a meeting in parliament to approve the proposal if he felt that the situation would lead to vacuum.
The joint parliamentary committees have approved the proposal that considers Lebanon a single district, and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.
But President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, the opposition al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front and the independent Christian MPs of the March 14 opposition have rejected it for allegedly harming the social fabric and increasing sectarian tension.
Berri reiterated in his remarks to An Nahar that the rival lawmakers had until the end of April to reach consensus on a draft-law “or else Lebanon would enter the circle of electoral dangers along with the threat of extension” of parliament's term.
Suleiman and Miqati have already signed a decree that sets the elections on June 9 based on the 1960 law that was used in the 2009 polls over the lack of agreement between the bickering parliamentary blocs.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has also opened the door for the announcement of candidacies.
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