Nassar Denies Calling for Elections Postponement in Megacenters Meeting

Tourism Minister Walid Nassar, who is close to the Free Patriotic Movement, has denied calling for the postponement of parliamentary polls in Monday’s ministerial meeting that tackled the issue of voting megacenters, noting that his remarks were taken out of context.

“With all due independence, I’m in favor of megacenters and I don’t have political calculations. My political leadership is President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Miqati,” Nassar said in a TV interview.

“There are no hurdles in the way of setting up megacenters within the specified deadline and political malice must stop,” he added.

“Elections should not be postponed even for a single day… and I would give up megacenters for the sake of holding the elections on time,” Nassar went on to say.

Culture Minister Mohammed al-Murtada had announced overnight that the ministers of interior, finance, foreign affairs, education, culture, tourism and telecom had agreed that the megacenters plan “requires a legislative amendment, except for the justice minister, who insisted that no legal obstacles prevent the move.”