Report: Next Week's General Session to Set Date to Extend Parliament's Term

A general session aimed at electing members of parliamentary committees next week will be used to set the date for a session to extend parliament's term, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Saturday.

Parliamentary sources told the daily that the parliament will approve the extension draft-law and speed up its implementation in a manner that will lead to its publication in the official gazette within five days.

The sources said that such a draft-law is not tackled by the constitution and therefore 65 lawmakers would be needed for quorum to be met at parliament.

Half plus one or 33 of these MPs would be needed to adopt it.

Al-Anba said that 28 Christian and 32 Muslim lawmakers support the law, while the members of Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc advocate it.

Some political blocs have been demanding that the parliamentary elections, which are set for November, should be held even if a head of state is not elected.

The Change and Reform bloc had rejected the extension last year when the term was extended for the first time. It still opposes the extension.

The term was extended in 2013 due to the political parties' failure to agree on a new parliamentary electoral law and due to the poor security situation in the country.

Speaker Nabih Berri, a previous advocate of staging the parliamentary elections, refused recently to stage the polls if they were boycotted by a key party.

Head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri had stated recently that the presidential elections should be a priority for Lebanon, revealing that his movement will not participate in the parliamentary polls should they be held in the absence of a president.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May.