Lebanon postpones municipal elections again as violence rocks south
Lebanon’s parliament on Thursday delayed municipal elections for a third time in two years, state media reported, as militants in the country’s south exchanged near-daily fire with Israel for over six months.
The Hezbollah group has been trading fire with Israeli forces across the border since the day after Hamas carried out a deadly attack on Israel on Oct.7, triggering the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Lebanon is supposed to hold municipal elections every six years, but cash-strapped authorities last held a local ballot in 2016.
Parliament approved “extending the existing municipal and elective councils’ mandate until a date no later than May 31, 2025,” despite objections from lawmakers opposed to Hezbollah, said the National News Agency.
The bill cited “complex security, military and political circumstances following the Israeli aggression on
Lebanon” and especially its south, near the border, as reasons for the delay. Lawmakers did not set a new election date, initially scheduled for 2022.
Local councils help provide basic services to residents, but their role has declined as state coffers ran dry after Lebanon’s economy collapsed in late 2019.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had previously said southern Lebanon could not be excluded from any upcoming ballot after the
Christian Lebanese Forces, the main party opposing Hezbollah, insisted on holding the polls on time.
More than 92,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Lebanon due to the violence, as have tens of thousands of residents of Israeli communities across the border.
Since violence began along the Israeli border on Oct. 8, at least 380 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 72 civilians, according to an AFP tally.