Both the Lebanese Parliament and Cabinet will hold sessions on the same day.
However, the decision to schedule the legislative and executive sessions together was not coincidental.
LBCI sources suggest that the sessions were followed by a surprise visit by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain El Tineh. The two reportedly discussed the postponement of the upcoming municipal elections, which is expected to be on the agenda for both sessions.
During the legislative session, the postponement of the municipal and Mukhtar’s elections is expected to be the first and second items of the article.
Moreover, parliamentary sources confirmed to LBCI that the elections would be delayed for a year rather than the previously suggested four to six months.
Meanwhile, the agenda of the Cabinet session included, in the ninth and last item, a request from the Interior and Municipalities Ministry to cover the costs of municipal and Mukhtar’s elections.
The observers of the Cabinet session clarified that this item would remain on the agenda. When the Parliament approves the proposal to postpone the elections, the item becomes without a subject. Therefore it is withdrawn during the session at the request of the Interior and Municipalities Minister Bassam Mawlawi, thus closing the case of the municipal elections.