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In a legislative parliamentary session presided over by Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday, 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.
It was the third time in a row that the local elections have been delayed.
The controversial session, boycotted by the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and several independent MPs and anti-Hezbollah blocs, was attended by 72 legislators ensuring the quorum to vote for the municipal elections’ postponement for yet another year.
During the debate, the Democratic Gathering bloc MPs led by the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) proposed an amendment to the draft law that would defer the municipal elections until September 30, 2024.
The National Moderation Bloc MPs, who attended the session, abstained from voting, reiterating their opposition to the elections’ postponement. They stressed the need to hold the elections to ensure a proper local governance of the country.
Speaking on behalf of the bloc, MP Ahmad Kheir said, “We will abstain from voting on the proposed law, but we propose, instead, giving the Ministry of Interior the powers of technical extension of (the municipalities’ mandate) for a period not exceeding a few weeks.”
For his part, Independent National Bloc MP Tony Frangie called for finding alternatives to secure funds for municipalities, to enable them to carry out their tasks after the elections’ postponement.
The leader of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Gebran Bassil, whose party voted in favor of the extension, sought to justify his “unconstitutional” move. “We are faced with two options, either a vacuum in the municipal facilities or the extension of their mandate. What’s happening in south Lebanon cannot be ignored, it is an additional factor, but it is not the main reason,” he said.
Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil also justified his party’s vote for the postponement saying, “It has become a reality and there will not be any elections until circumstances change.”
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who also heads the Amal Movement, 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.
After the session, PSP MP Wael Abou Faour told This is Beirut, “We all know that we have a situation in the south that we cannot evade. We have a war in the south. And I don’t think that it would be acceptable to separate Lebanon into two different areas. This is why we proposed as a democratic bloc that we only postpone the election until September. But our proposal was rejected.”
Lebanon is supposed to hold municipal elections every six years, but cash-strapped authorities last held a local ballot in 2016.
Thursday’s 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.
More than 92,000 people have been displaced from their homes in south Lebanon due to the unabating violence between Hezbollah and Israel since October 8.
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.
