Cabinet Forms Ministerial Panel to Study Voting Megacenters Possibility

The Cabinet has formed a ministerial committee to study the possibility of setting up voting megacenters in the upcoming elections, after a study prepared by the Interior Ministry failed to convince President Michel Aoun.

The committee comprises the ministers of justice, interior, finance, foreign affairs, educations, culture, tourism and telecommunications. It will be tasked with preparing a report on the possibility of setting up megacenters for the May 15 elections. According to local newspapers, Cabinet will discuss the report in a session that will be held Thursday in Baabda.

The Interior Ministry had announced in a study presented to Prime Minister Najib Miqati earlier this way that it wil be impossible to use voting megacenters in the May 15 parliamentary elections, citing legal, logistic and financial difficulties.

Miqati had requested the study following a letter from Aoun, who has described the megacenters plan as necessary.

The study said that it would be impossible to set up the megacenters within the deadlines stipulated by the current electoral law. It also said that there is a need to introduce legal amendments amid the presence of logistic and organizational difficulties in terms of the needed manpower and financial resources.

“The time needed to finalize the preparations is no less than five months,” the study said.

It added that the project’s total cost would stand at around $5.8 million.