Constitutional Council Head: Our Decisions Cannot be Scrutinized
The head of the Constitutional Council, Issam Suleiman, refuted on Wednesday claims that the 10-member body had failed to take decisive stances, saying it has played an important role in legislation.
“There is no place for vacuum in the Constitutional Council, which monitors the constitutionality of laws and arbitrates parliamentary election challenges,” Suleiman said in a press conference.
“The Council is the backbone of the state of law and its by-laws are a proof to that,” he said.
“Claims that the Council hasn't achieved anything since its inception include lots of fabrications,” Suleiman told reporters.
“The decisions that it has issued have a huge importance and have played an essential role in legislation,” he said, adding “they have pushed towards the development of the process of parliamentary elections and controlled them.”
Suleiman vowed the Council will carry out its mission, saying its decisions cannot be scrutinized for allegedly lacking legality or constitutionality even if the mandate of its members had expired over the failure to appoint new members.
Asked about a challenge filed by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat's bloc on the suspension of the electoral deadlines, Suleiman said “it is being studied and a decision will be issued within the (one-month) deadline.”
Jumblat's eight-member National Struggle Front, Deputy Speaker Farid Makari and lawmakers Ahmed Karami and Marwan Hamadeh filed on April 26 the challenge against the suspension of the electoral deadlines set by the 1960 law.
President Michel Suleiman signed last month the draft-law suspending the deadline for submitting nominations for the polls until May 19.
The draft-law was referred to the president after it was approved by parliament despite the boycott of Jumblat's bloc.
It calls for setting the deadline for submitting candidacies to three weeks before the elections date. It also allows candidates who seek to withdraw their nominations to do so 15 days before the polls.
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