BEIRUT: MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement is preparing to challenge before the Constitutional Council a Parliament-endorsed law that extended the mandate of the legislative body until 2017.
“Preparations are underway in this respect and the [challenge] is being studied seriously within the legal 15-day deadline from the day the law is published in the Official Gazette,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, said Friday.
He said the challenge would concentrate on the absence of a “force majeure” preventing the holding of parliamentary elections. He pointed out that Lebanon is not witnessing a devastating war, but specific security operations that are being dealt with.
“If Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Yemen were able to hold elections despite the events they … are still witnessing, how come we are not able [to hold elections],” Kanaan said.
He said that Article 74 of the Constitution clearly stated that in the event of a presidential vacancy or dissolution of Parliament, the government must immediately call for elections.
“There are no constitutional excuses that prevent … parliamentary elections,” Kanaan added.
The MP, however, acknowledged that his party was likely to face significant barriers in confronting the extension law.
Kanaan’s remarks came two days after lawmakers from both sides of the political divide extended Parliament’s mandate for two years and seven months to make it a full four-year mandate, after MPs, citing security concerns, previously extended the House’s term for 17 months in May 2013.
The vote was boycotted by MPs from Aoun’s bloc and the Kataeb Party, both of which are Christian groups, but the Lebanese Forces – also Christian – voted for the law.
The law will be published in the Official Gazette next Tuesday, after which it goes into effect.
During the Cabinet meeting Thursday, eight Christian ministers and a Muslim minister rejected the extension law, in a symbolic gesture that will not impede the controversial move.
It is unclear whether Aoun’s bloc’s planned challenge will affect the extension bill. In 2013, the bloc challenged the first extension of Parliament’s mandate, but the Constitutional Council could not meet and look into it for lack of a quorum, caused by the absence of members close to Speaker Nabih Berri and MP Walid Jumblatt, who backed the extension. Both back the second extension as well.
Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai lashed out at lawmakers who met this week to extend their mandate, even though they have failed since April meet to elect a new president. He urged lawmakers who opposed the extension of Parliament’s term to resign.
“We felt a great pain when Lebanese MPs were able to consecrate a vacuum in the presidency post over eight months since last March. But when they reached the verge of a vacuum in Parliament, they, like good students, acted quickly with a number beyond expectations [95 MPs] to protect their parliamentary seats and extended their mandate by themselves, in violation of the people’s will and the Constitution once again to protect their interests,” Rai told a news conference in Sydney at the end of a visit to Australia.
He lamented that while Shiites were represented in the speakership and the Sunnis in the premiership, the Christians have been deprived of their representation.
Referring to MPs who opposed the extension of Parliament’s term, Rai said: “If there are among the MPs those who were not satisfied with this path [extension], let them show this by resigning from this Parliament, which will be condemned by the court of history and conscience.”
