Panel endorses new law on Constitutional Council
Parliament”s Administration and Justice Committee on Monday canceled interviews with 74 candidates for the Constitutional Council and decided to endorse a draft law concerning the council recently submitted by Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar. The panel also recommended that the 2006 law the establishing the council be repealed.
The committee”s head, MP Robert Ghanem, told reporters after the meeting, which was attended by Najjar, that all those who had submitted their candidacies would be allowed to reply.
Parliament on Wednesday postponed talks on a draft law that calls for an extension of the deadline to appoint members to the Constitutional Council, whose activities have been paralyzed since 2005.
Speaker Nabih Berri asked the committee to examine the draft with the justice minister next week. The proposal may be presented and discussed at another legislative session later in October.
Najjar had submitted a draft law aimed at introducing reforms to the makeup and by-laws of the council.
In an interview with Voice of Lebanon radio last week, Ghanem said that as soon as Parliament approves the draft law, candidates would be expected to submit their documents within 15 days.
"Then Parliament would call for a session to elect five of the members of the council and the government would appoint the other five," he added.
Ghanem said he expected the formation of the council within two months.
The Taif Accord, which ended the 1975-1990 Civil War, mandated the establishment of a Constitutional Council "to supervise the constitutionality of laws and to arbitrate conflicts that arise from parliamentary and presidential elections.
Law 250 pertaining to the establishment of the Constitutional Council was originally issued on July 14, 1993.
The Lebanese Constitution, amended in keeping with the agreement reached in the Saudi city of Taif, now reads in part: "The Constitutional Council judges the validity of the mandate of an elected deputy as well as processing all contestations and complaints resulting from parliamentary elections.
The council has the right to declare the invalidity of the electoral process and order the holding of new elections for a single seat or for the whole district. The council is also entitled to invalidate the mandate of a deputy and announce the candidate with the most votes as the winner.
The Constitutional Council”s decisions are irreversible and not subject to revision.
The Constitutional Council is made up of 10 members; five of them are elected in Parliament by absolute majority during the first round and by proportional majority in the second round. In case of tie, the older candidate is elected.
The remaining five members are appointed by the Cabinet, provided that a two-thirds ministerial quorum attends the Cabinet session where the appointments will take place.
The makeup of the council is also designed to preserves the confessional distribution arrived at under Taif, with two Maronite members, two Sunnis, two Shiites, two Orthodox, one Druze, and one Catholic.
"Reviving the Constitutional Council is a pressing matter," Berri said in comments published in As-Safir newspaper last week.