Lebanon sets March date for parliamentary elections | Election News

Politicians also voted against adding six seats to represent the diaspora and refused to provide quotas for female parliamentarians.

Beirut, Lebanon – The Lebanese parliament has voted to hold parliamentary elections on March 27 next year, a bit earlier than planned.

The vote on Tuesday came as MPs separately decided against adding six additional seats to represent the Lebanese diaspora, as well as having a quota for women among the 128 elected representatives.

The election was originally scheduled to be held in May. However, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in late September that officials are considering holding polls in advance to avoid campaigning during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“May God bless the elections will be transparent and sound,” Mikati said on Tuesday after the interim parliamentary meeting at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

The head of the largest Christian group in the parliament, the son-in-law of President Michel Aoun, and Congressman Gebrun Basil, opposed the motion. He said that the meteorological department predicts that stormy weather may disrupt voting, and that this date coincides with Lent, during which Christians fast.

This election will be the country’s first since the election Popular uprising At the end of 2019, hundreds of thousands of people began to demand a radical change in the political and economic status quo.

The Lebanese Parliament is made up of 128 politicians, who are distributed proportionally according to the country’s minority religions and sects. The parliament term is four years, but the last vote in 2018 was five years late.

Lebanese abroad welcome the vote against adding more seats to represent the diaspora. Opposition political groups and diaspora organizations have been opposed to this idea for months, saying it is unnecessary and a form of voter suppression.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Karim Damien, 24, now living in Switzerland, told Al Jazeera. “If we really want our voice to be represented in Lebanon, then we must vote for the wider framework of 128 MPs.”

For Lebanon, where funds are tight, the election is at a critical moment.

The country’s economy continues to spiral upward, with three-quarters of the population falling into poverty and bank deposits being turned away. The local currency has depreciated by about 90%.

At the same time, the ongoing power crisis has paralysed much of public life, and shocking food inflation has forced charities and UN agencies to increase Food aid For millions of people.