Charbel urges MPs to agree on new electoral law before deadline

Interior and Municipalities Minister Marwan Charbel said on Tuesday that the inmates at Roumieh prison are taking advantage of the absence of doors in the prison to attempt to escape, noting that one building out of four has been evacuated for renovations which are expected to end within two months.           

In a statement to “Voice of Lebanon”, Charbel stressed that the prison will be equipped with surveillance cameras as of next month, while it is expected that the renovation works of the prison will end at the beginning of the summer. He added that escape attempts will be extremely difficult once these measures are complete.         

Separately, Charbel hoped that the concerned authorities will "quickly endorse a new election law before time elapses, in order to allow the Interior Ministry to carry out necessary  technical and logistic preparations,” pointing out that the Ministry's deadline to start preparing for the elections based on a new electoral law comes at the end of February.                

“If this date is over passed without an agreement on a new law, the elections would surely be postponed, three to five months, for technical reasons,” he said, urging the deputies to agree on a new electoral law as soon as possible.