Report: Approval of New Constitutional Council in Limbo over Presidential Vacuum

The door for submitting nominations for the Constitutional Council was opened on Friday amid a debate on whether a newly-appointed council would ever be approved given the ongoing vacuum in the presidency, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

It said that the current council's term ends on June 5.

Head of the council Issam Suleiman announced that candidates can begin submitting their nominations on March 6 and over a 30-day period.

Ten members of the council are elected, while cabinet appoints the ten others.

Should no obstacles hinder the polls or the appointments, the new members would have to take an oath before a president of the republic.

Failure to elect or appoint new members would force the current members, whose term would have expired, to continue in their posts until their replacements are chosen, meaning they would continue through the force of the law.

An Nahar predicted that the case of the Constitutional Council would begin to garner attention given the failure to hold legislative sessions at parliament and given the need for consensus to take place among cabinet members over the appointment of new council members.

Lebanon has been without a president since May when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.

Ongoing disputes between the March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have so far thwarted the polls.

M.T.