Lebanon Parliament extends term despite protests

BEIRUT: Lebanese lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to extend their mandate by another two years and seven months, skipping scheduled elections for the second consecutive time amid deteriorating security conditions.
The vote to extend the mandate of the Parliament until June 2017 was held despite a boycott by two major Christian parties. Protesters also blocked roads to Lebanon’s Parliament Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt to halt the session.
The demonstrators hurled tomatoes at the vehicles of lawmakers in downtown Beirut, but were held back by Lebanese security forces, and the vote went ahead.
Ninety-five lawmakers among those who showed up voted in favor of the extension Wednesday, while two opposed.
It is yet another symptom of the country’s political paralysis amid regional and local turmoil resulting from the Syrian civil war.
The parliamentarians claim they need to extend their own term in office because Lebanon’s security situation is too dire to allow holding elections. The 128-seat legislature’s current term expires on Nov. 20.
It was the second consecutive time this Parliament extended its own term, giving it a full eight years in power— double its allowed mandate.
Parliament extended its term in May last year, skipping scheduled elections also because of the country’s deteriorating security. It marked the first time that Parliament has had to extend its term since Lebanon’s own 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
Clashes tied to Syria’s war have broken out with increasing regularity in Lebanon, a country with a religious and political divide that mirrors that of its neighbor.