Lebanon parliamentary prepares for election, public discussion of state budget
In an indication that the Lebanese elections will start early, Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications Issam Naaman announced that he will join the elections and nominate himself in the third division, the division where the current prime minister, Salim al-Hoss, will nominate himself.
Meantime, Lebanese parliamentary sources stressed that Lebanese Deputy Premier and Minister of the Interior Michel Murr will soon start a series of preliminary meetings for the elections.
The sources added that the "election card" will only be used for the elections as a guarantee of an honest voting process.
The Lebanese Ministry of the Interior is expected to issue more than 500,000 election cards within the coming days, which is exactly the number of people at the voting age, including immigrants and people outside the country at the present.
The new election law states that voting is duly by the election card and having it is an obligatory matter for people of voting age.
The Lebanese Ministry of the Interior will announce, shortly, the names of judges who are responsible for the registration. Expenditures will be set, as will ways of using the media on equal footing among the candidates.
On another development, the capital and budget committee at the Lebanese Parliament on Tuesday held its last meeting, during which it discussed the draft budget law project which will be discussed by the Parliament at the beginning of February amid indicators that sessions dedicated to discussing the budget will by transmitted live via the mass media. It will be an important occasion for the parliament and the government to debate their views before the public.
The parliamentary committee chaired by parliament member Khalil Hrawi had approved an extra sum of 150 billion Lebanese pounds to carry out the lorry and truck road project which starts with Beirut port until al-Mdeiraj area, which is a key transit road.
In another development that falls in the course of a positive initiative, Syria has decided to postpone payments owed to be paid by the Lebanese side as price for electricity generated from Syria, at a cost of US $25 million.
This was approved on the sideline of the meetings of the joint Syrian- Lebanese committee which stressed that future programs and strategic projects in the two countries take into account the two countries' integration as one united system.