Lebanese MPs vote to hold early elections in March
▶ Parliament also decides to allow citizens living abroad to take part
Lebanese MPs yesterday voted to hold early elections on March 27 next year.
Parliament also voted in favour of allowing Lebanese citizens overseas to vote in the polls.
Early elections were one of several demands born of Lebanon’s October 2019 anti-government protests.
Since the Beirut port blast last August, many of the established parties have also pushed for the vote to be brought forward, saying it is the only way out of the country’s political crisis.
The main objection came from Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, who said the country’s meteorological authority had warned of probable storms on election day, which would inhibit voting.
He vowed to challenge the decision to change the election date, which was originally in May.
Allowing Lebanese people living overseas to vote is divisive because it could tip the balance in a delicate sectarian system.
Earlier this month, analysts told The National that the Lebanese diaspora would probably reject the country’s traditional political parties.
The topic had taken on a new urgency before next year’s elections, given the number of Lebanese citizens who have emigrated amid the political and economic crises of the past two years.
Yesterday’s sitting of Parliament – its first since Prime Minister Najib Mikati was confirmed in September – brought immunity for all MPs, some of whom are under investigation for the roles they played in the Beirut blast.
These include Ali Hassan Khalil, the former finance minister for whom an arrest warrant was issued last week, prompting protests by Hezbollah and its political ally, Amal.
The last time MPs met it was to pass a confidence vote in the new government of Mr Mikati.
His confirmation ended 13 months of caretaker government after the administration of Hassan Diab resigned following the Beirut port explosion.
But during the past week, the country appears to have lurched closer to another political crisis.
Street clashes left seven people dead on Thursday after Hezbollah and Amal called a protest against Tarek Bitar, the judge leading the investigation into the port explosion, whom they accuse of politicising the probe.
On Monday night, Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, accused his Christian rivals – the Lebanese Forces – of attempting to start a new civil war.
Nasrallah said he held the group, led by Samir Geagea, responsible for the Beirut street violence.
Hezbollah and Amal, the country’s two most powerful Shiite parties, have said they will not attend Cabinet until Mr Bitar is removed from the investigation. A Cabinet meeting last Wednesday was cancelled as a result of the threats.
The warning led Mr Mikati to announce he would not call Cabinet to meet until the standoff over the port blast investigation was resolved.