BEIRUT: Lebanon’s municipal elections set for May could be postponed for a second time following a series of parliamentary delays, leaving local administrations and services paralyzed.
The elections were initially postponed for 12 months because they coincided with the 2022 parliamentary elections.
But with deputies refusing to hold a parliamentary session to settle the matter, municipal polls now face a second postponement.
Rival Cabinet and parliamentary blocs blamed each other for the possible delay of the elections.
Meanwhile, the joint parliamentary committee failed to approve a draft law to secure an advance for the Ministry of Interior to fund the May elections.
International observers have repeatedly warned Lebanon’s political class of the need to meet constitutional deadlines. Political leaders have also been urged to meet their responsibilities in holding presidential elections, as well as the municipal and mayoral elections, which are the responsibility of local authorities.
The extended term of Lebanon’s municipal councils ends in May. The term of the municipal and mayoral councils lasts six years, while the deputies’ term lasts four.
Minister of Interior Bassam Mawlawi announced earlier this month that the elections will be held in stages from May 7-28, pledging to conduct them pending the completion of funding.
Joanna Wronecka, UN special coordinator for Lebanon, welcomed Mawlawi’s announcement, saying that the elections “offer an opportunity for citizens to make their voices heard and to enhance their involvement in local governance, and development and foster local ownership.”
She added: “The Lebanese people deserve effective, responsive and accountable state institutions at all levels. Municipalities are also a key partner for the UN in delivering assistance.”
The Lebanese government estimated that it required about $8.9 million to conduct the municipal elections.
The electoral process needs about 12,000 workers and 800 judges to organize. However, those targets are affected by a strike by the majority of Lebanon’s public workers and teachers over salary deflation.
Since the outset of the economic crisis in 2019, municipalities have suffered financially. Some have complained about their inability to carry out their developmental role.
There are 1,059 municipalities in Lebanon, including 12,741 members, according to UNDP figures.
Since the last municipal elections conducted in 2016 amid a presidential vacuum, there have been 108 defunct municipalities run by the district administrator or governor.
There are 3,018 mayors responsible for issuing vital documents for citizens, such as birth and death certificates, as well as handling visa paperwork, extracts of records, residence certificates and more.
Municipal elections have often been affected by political and security issues in Lebanon. During the country’s civil war, 21 laws were issued to provide term extensions for municipalities and mayors.
Firas Hamdan, Change party representative, said that he regrets the state of the country in terms of “failure, impotence, recklessness and squabbling of responsibilities.”
He added: “There is an integrated political system and a political decision not to hold elections.”
Concerned government officials failed to attend a meeting of the joint parliamentary committees to discuss the elections and related expenses.
“The issue of holding elections has become almost impossible,” said Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Elias Bou Saab after the meeting of the parliamentary committees. “I will, in my personal capacity, propose a law to extend the term of the municipal and elective councils for four months.”
Saab blamed “the government and the interior minister” for the possible failure to hold the elections in May.
MP Ali Hassan Khalil of the Amal Movement bloc in Parliament said that “there is a logistical difficulty in holding the elections.”
MP George Adwan from the Lebanese Forces party said: “Despite our demand for months that the government do everything necessary to hold the municipal elections, it turned out that all the promises were false and the government has not taken any serious step to hold the elections.
“We hold the prime minister, the Cabinet and any party that contributed with or within this government, responsible for not holding these elections and all that results from the non-alternation of power.”
Adwan announced that he would “not participate in any legislative session convened by Parliament to approve the extension of municipal and elective councils before electing a president of the republic.”
MP Faisal Al-Sayegh said: “Everyone wants to hold municipal elections, but are we able to hold them? The issue is not only related to financing but also to logistical issues.”
Lebanon municipal services face paralysis amid election doubts
https://arab.news/gy82u
Lebanon municipal services face paralysis amid election doubts
- Rival Cabinet and parliamentary blocs blamed each other for the possible delay of the elections
- Minister of Interior Bassam Mawlawi announced earlier this month that the elections will be held in stages from May 7-28, pledging to conduct them pending the completion of funding
Gaza’s living conditions worsen as strong winds and hypothermia kill 5
- Hundreds of tents and makeshift shelters were blown away or heavily damaged, the UN humanitarian office reported
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Strong winter winds collapsed walls onto flimsy tents for Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four people, hospital authorities said Tuesday.
Dangerous living conditions persist in Gaza after more than two years of devastating Israeli bombardment and aid shortfalls. A ceasefire has been in effect since Oct. 10. But aid groups say that Palestinians broadly lack the shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.
The dead include two women, a girl and a man, according to Shifa Hospital, Gaza City’s largest, which received the bodies.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday a 1-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight, while the spokesman for the UN’s children agency said over 100 children and teenagers have been killed by “military means” since the ceasefire began.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it exchanged fire Tuesday with six people spotted near its troops deployed in southern Gaza, killing at least two of them in western Rafah.
Family mourns relatives killed by wall collapse
Three members of the same family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 8-meter (26-foot) high wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area along the Mediterranean shore of Gaza City, Shifa Hospital said. At least five others were injured.
Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.
“The world has allowed us to witness death in all its forms,” Bassel Hamouda said after the funeral. “It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip.”
A second woman was killed when a wall fell on her tent in the western part of the city, Shifa Hospital said.
Hundreds of tents and makeshift shelters were blown away or heavily damaged, the UN humanitarian office reported.
The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, tarps, blankets and clothes as well as nutrition and hygiene items across Gaza, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The majority of Palestinians live in makeshift tents since their homes were reduced to rubble during the war. When storms strike the territory, Palestinian rescue workers warn people against seeking shelter inside damaged buildings for fears of collapse. Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza during the truce.
In the central town of Zawaida, Associated Press footage showed inundated tents Tuesday morning, with people trying to rebuild their shelters.
Yasmin Shalha, a displaced woman from the northern town of Beit Lahiya, stood against winds that lifted the tarps of tents around her as she stitched hers back together with needle and thread. She said it had fallen on top of her family the night before, as they slept.
“The winds were very, very strong. The tent collapsed over us,” the mother of five told AP. “As you can see, our situation is dire.”
On the shore in southern Gaza, tents were swept into the Mediterranean. Families pulled what was left from the sea, while some built sand barriers to hold back rising water.
“The sea took our mattresses, our tents, our food and everything we owned,” Shaban Abu Ishaq said, as he dragged part of his tent out of the sea in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis.
Mohamed Al-Sawalha, a 72-year-old man from the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya, said the conditions most Palestinians in Gaza endure are barely livable.
“It doesn’t work neither in summer nor in winter,” he said of the tent. “We left behind houses and buildings (with) doors that could be opened and closed. Now we live in a tent. Even sheep don’t live like we do.”
Residents aren’t able to return to their homes in Israeli-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip.
Child death toll in Gaza rises
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the 1-year-old in the central town of Deir Al-Balah was the seventh fatality due to the cold conditions since winter started. Others included a baby just seven days old and a 4-year-old girl, whose deaths were announced Monday.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 people were killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
UNICEF spokesman James Elder said Tuesday at least 100 children under the age of 18 — 60 boys and 40 girls — have been killed since the truce began due to military operations, including drone strikes, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he said, reflect incidents where enough details have been compiled to warrant recording, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He said hundreds of children have been wounded.
While “bombings and shootings have slowed” during the ceasefire, they have not stopped, Elder told reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. “So what the world now calls calm would be considered a crisis anywhere else,” he said.
Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been struggling to keep the cold weather and storms at bay while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly needed during the winter months. It’s the third winter since the war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.
