Lebanon – The Lebanese Parliament announced, on Thursday, the postponement of the municipal and optional elections for the year 2025, following they were scheduled to be held next May, to a date no later than May 2025, for the third time in two years.
This came during a session held by Parliament in the capital, Beirut, according to the official Lebanese News Agency.
The agency said that the Council approved extending the mandate of the municipal and elective councils (mukhtar elections) until a date no later than May 31, 2025.
The parliamentary session was attended by 72 deputies out of 128 members of the House of Representatives, according to local media, amid a boycott by parliamentary blocs, most notably the Strong Republic Bloc (led by Samir Geagea), the Lebanese Phalange (led by Sami Gemayel), and some independent representatives.
In turn, Representative Jihad Al-Samad (independent) who proposed the extension law said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper: “After the Israeli aggression, the normal conditions that allow municipal and optional elections to be held on their basis are no longer available.”
He stated that “security reasons prevent holding elections in the governorates of the South, Nabatieh, and Baalbek-Hermel, once morest the backdrop of the ongoing war with Israel, and elections cannot be held in Lebanon without those governorates.”
Since October 8, Hezbollah and Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged daily bombardments at the border with the Israeli army, resulting in deaths and injuries, most of them in Lebanon.
The first postponement of the municipal and optional elections, which are held every 6 years, was in 2022 as a result of their coincidence with the parliamentary elections, while the second postponement came in 2023 for one year due to the state’s inability to secure the necessary funding, according to the Minister of Interior in the caretaker government, Bassam Al-Mawlawi at the time.
Anatolia
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2024-04-27 17:10:11
