Naharnet

Report: Berri's Early Polls Call to 'Prevent Anew' Extension of Parliament Mandate

Speaker Nabih Berri's call to slash the parliament's extension term and bring the legislative polls closer, is aimed at preventing attempts to “further postpone the elections” under a delay plight of “creating magnetic voter cards,” the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat reported on Friday.

Sources close to Ain el-Tineh told the daily that “the law proposal submitted by the Development and Liberation bloc (of Berri) to bring the elections closer, is very serious.”

The bloc has called on the Parliament to "discuss and vote on the proposal, either by approving and staging the elections before the end of this year, or to drop the notion after which everyone shall bear the responsibility,” of the consequences, said the the sources on condition of anonymity.

They added that the Speaker has recorded an “early warning against any proposition of postponing the elections anew.

He “wanted to uncover the genuine intentions of some seeking a compromise deal to create the magnetic voter card at a cost of $180 million, thus implicating the State in the constitutional deadline and pushing for a new postponement of the elections,” they said.

Creating magnetic voter cards is a “costly” procedure, said the sources noting that “pre-registration of voters permits people to cast their votes at their area of residence and fulfills the purpose instead of creating said cards.”

On Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil's disapproval of Berri's suggestion, the sources said the real intentions of some is to postpone the elections, “they want no reforms or elections, but a compromise deal that leads to the postponement of the polls.”

Bassil has dubbed Berri's suggestion as “blocking the reform process.”

Berri announced during a parliament meeting this week that his Development and Liberation bloc had submitted a draft law under which the extended term of the current parliament would expire on December 31, 2017 instead of May 21, 2018.

A suggestion to upgrade the national identity card into a “biometric identity card” that enables citizens to use their IDs to cast votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections was approved by the Cabinet.

The introduction of biometric voting cards was one of the excuses that the legislature had announced in order to extend its own term for a third time.

The upcoming parliamentary elections are slated to be held under a proportional representation electoral law for the first time in Lebanon's history.

Source: Naharnet


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