LF Hails Constitutional Council for 'Staying Out of Deals'

MP George Adwan of the Lebanese Forces on Tuesday lauded the Constitutional Council for “staying out of (political) deals,” shortly after the Council announced that it failed to issue a ruling on an appeal filed by the Free Patriotic Movement against the electoral law’s amendments.

“The (Council’s) members maintained their stance,” Adwan added, noting that “the constitutional and legal right of non-residents to vote for 128 seats has triumphed.”

“The attempted deal will remain in the minds of non-residents, who will hold accountable the domineering system that displaced them from their homeland and kept trying to exclude them until the last moment,” the MP went on to say.

MP Imad Wakim, also of the LF bloc, for his part tweeted that “the will of Lebanese expats to take part in parliamentary elections in their (electoral) districts has triumphed.”

They “will not be isolated from their homeland and they will hold you accountable,” he added.

Former deputy PM Ghassan Hasbani also tweeted that “the Constitutional Council remained safe from political deals.”

“The right of expats to vote from their places of residence has been consolidated. This is an additional positive step towards the parliamentary elections,” he added.

A major political deal among several parties had been reached on Monday, but it failed to materialize due to the rejection of some parties, most notably Prime Minister Najib Miqati, media reports said.

According to reports, the deal had called for the Constitutional Council to accept the FPM’s appeal in return for preventing Judge Tarek Bitar from questioning ex-ministers, securing the resumption of Cabinet sessions and replacing the head of the Higher Judicial Council, the state prosecutor, the financial prosecutor and the head of judicial inspection.