REPORT: Extending the Parliament's mandate and postponing the elections

The Lebanese Ministry of Interior has set a timetable for the coming Parliamentary elections in 2013 specifying the 9th of June as the electoral day and the 10th and 11th of June as days to announce the results.   

Regardless of this, putting these dates into effect is based on which electoral law will be adopted.                  

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that if the elections were not held on due time, the Deputies must convene before the end of the Parliament's mandate to extend its work for one month or more upon requirements.                

Charbel pointed out that if the work of the parliament were to be extended, the elections would be postponed till another date.                       

Minister Charbel told LBCI that there is nothing such as "postponing the elections" since extending the mandate of the Parliament is "what really happens".                

Charbel added that should an electoral law be issued before the 9th of June, a "technical extension" of the parliaments mandate would occur, stressing that it is still early to call on electoral bodies since this procedure takes place 90 days before the elections; on the 11th of March.          

As for the electoral law, Minister Charbel said that the 1960's electoral law is currently in force and it may not be abolished unless another law is agreed upon.


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