Berri’s alternative plan for the elections

Source: Nida Al Watan – Joyce Akiki

As usual, the rabbit always comes out of Nabih Berri’s hat!

The Speaker of Parliament, the magician of the legislature, “the Professor,” as everyone likes to call him, is the engineer of solutions, the scriptwriter of the story, its hero, and its producer all at once!

This time, the story, the crisis, is the parliamentary elections, and Berri himself is both the creator of its crisis and its savior!

He categorically refuses to place the draft law submitted by the government on the agenda of any legislative session because it grants expatriates the right to vote in their countries of residence. After obstructing the law through rejection, Berri then comes forward to resolve it based on the principle of “treat me with that which was the disease.”

Nida Al Watan has learned that Berri proposed to the concerned officials a way out of the impasse based on the principle of fragmentation; that is, fragmenting the existing law!

He proposed that Minister of Interior and Municipalities Ahmad al-Hajjar submit a request for consultation to the Legislation and Consultations Authority, headed by Judge Joelle Fawaz, to obtain its opinion on only 3 articles of the current electoral law; namely, the disputed provisions: expatriate voting in their countries of residence, the “megacenter,” and the magnetic card. According to the scenario drawn up by Berri, the Authority’s opinion would be as follows:

It is not possible for expatriates to vote in their countries of residence because there are no implementing decrees for this; it is not possible to establish the ‘megacenter;’ and it is not possible to implement the magnetic card.

This would, in turn, automatically lead to the issuance of a decision by the relevant political authority to suspend the implementation of these three articles only, while maintaining the implementation of the other provisions of the current electoral law, based on and backed by the Authority’s opinion.

This means, in practical and explicit terms, that the elections would be held on their scheduled date, tentatively on 10 May, with expatriates voting in Lebanon rather than in their countries of residence.

But what if the plan does not succeed?

Berri, of course, has a way out!

Nida Al Watan has learned that Berri has prepared a “Plan B” in case “Plan A” fails.

He pledged before the concerned parties that, if the decision of the Legislation and Consultations Authority does not come as expected and as outlined by Berri, he will then call for a general legislative session on 1 March, with the aim of suspending only the 3 articles of the law.

It appears that a major political agreement has been reached in this regard and that a “deal” has been struck, approved by most parliamentary blocs, which would go along with Berri’s “one-man show” scenario. If this proves accurate, and if the parliamentary elections are not postponed for reasons that are still being discussed behind the scenes, this would mean that Berri has succeeded in “pushing through his word at the expense of the word of politicians in Lebanon and expatriates around the world.” So, congratulations, “Mr. Speaker.”