Report: Suleiman to Call for Cabinet Session to Tackle Polls Based on 1960 Law

The rift between the Lebanese foes is expected to deepen as media reports said on Wednesday that President Michel Suleiman is expected to call for a session for the caretaker cabinet next week.

According to An Nahar newspaper, Suleiman will call for a session that would focus on the preparations for the upcoming parliamentary elections based on the 1960 law.

The president rejects renewing the tenure of the current parliament.

His visitors quoted him as saying that he will not allow to be labeled as “the president that failed to preserve the constitution and laws.”

Suleiman is keen to form a government capable of overseeing the polls and that has the consent by all parties.

Sources told the daily that the deadline for candidates to submit their nominations to the parliamentary elections is expected to be extended to April 20.

Seven candidates have so far filed their nomination to the elections ahead of the constitutional deadline on April 9.

The rival parties have so far failed to agree on an electoral draft-law as the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Miqati last month complicated the political crisis in Lebanon.

The March 8 coalition is holding on the the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal as the only alternative to the 1960 law, however, it was rejected by Suleiman, Miqati, al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front of MP Walid Jumblat, and the March 14 opposition’s Christian independent MPs.

The polls are likely to be postponed if the parliament gives the green light to the proposal that divides Lebanon into a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.

Suleiman and Miqati have signed a decree that sets the elections on June 9 according to the 1960 law, which is based on winner-takes-all system, over the lack of agreement between the bickering parliamentary blocs.

Their call have drawn the ire of the March 8 majority coalition, which has totally rejected the law.