Municipal elections are postponed until 1999
Lebanon, Politics, 7/10/1997

Parliament on July 9 voted to postponed the municipal elections for the second time in two months. They will now take place as late as the end of April 1999.

The move has extended by a year the mandate of mayors and municipal councils until April 30, 1999. It appeared to be the continuation of a jovial atmosphere between Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The first day of the two-day legislative session was marked by a lengthy and animated discussion on the issue in which many MPs urged the holding of municipal elections as soon as possible.

While the government avoided taking a clear stand on the issue, parliament finally decided to extend the mandate of mayors and municipal councils for an additional year, a decision clearly supported by Berri if not by many MPs.

A draft bill submitted to the assembly by interior minister Michel Murr proposed that local councils' terms in office be prolonged until April 30,1998, so the government could prepare all the draft bills needed for local elections.

These draft bills would include a new draft law on municipalities, along with a bill on administrative decentralization and another on the elections.

But several MPs expressed skepticism over the government's ability to prepare the drafts in time. The speaker, who clearly favored a further postponement of the municipal elections, told the assembly that parliament's credibility could be on the line if it failed to approve an extension beyond April 1998.

"If the government does not come up with the required laws (by next April), it is parliament's credibility which will be at stake."

Berri asked prime minister Rafik Hariri if the government would be able to prepare all the drafts in due time.

Refusing to take full responsibility, Hariri said that, even if issued in time, the bills would still have to be examined by the parliamentary committees and discuussed in parliament.

Several MPs submitted proposals, all with a common denominator: an extended deadline and a guarantee from the government to respect this.

During the extension period, the government will have to prepare all drafts needed on decentralization, municipalities and elections, and will hold elections as soon as these bills are endorsed.

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