BEIRUT: The Constitutional Council will issue a final decision Wednesday on petitions contesting the extension of Parliament’s term amid controversial reports over whether the body is going to endorse or dismiss challenges put forth. The head of the Constitutional Council Judge Issam Suleiman presented Monday his report on the challenge to the 10-member body, a judicial source told The Daily Star. The half-Muslim, half-Christian council will issue a pronouncement on Suleiman’s report Wednesday.

 

President Michel Sleiman and MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc submitted, earlier this month, petitions opposing the extension of Parliament’s mandate. A decision would require the support of at least seven members.

 

Citing security concerns in the country, in addition to their own failure to agree on a new electoral law, 97 members of the 128-member Parliament endorsed a draft law on May 31 to extend the legislature’s four-year mandate for 17 months and delay the polls until November 2014. That mandate would have expired June 20.

 

Established right after the country’s 1975-90 Civil War; the mandate of the Constitutional Council includes interpreting the Constitution, observing the constitutionality of the laws, as well as settling disputes and contests emanating from presidential and parliamentary elections.

 

While sources from Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc ruled out the council scrapping the challenges, a March 14 lawmaker, who did not want to be identified, said validating the challenges “was inconceivable.”

 

“None of the political parties is ready for the elections and there seems to be divergence over elections even among groups within the same alliance,” said the March 14 MP.

 

Political sources expected that as a compromise to both the supporters and opponents of the extension, the Constitutional Council may reduce the 17-month period to eight months.

 

In the meantime, the political scene looks to be paralyzed and efforts to form a new Cabinet halted awaiting the decision by the Constitutional Council.

 

Sources close to Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam said he was waiting for the verdict of the Council to decide “on the approach to adopt” regarding government formation.

 

Salam has come under pressure from allies and foes to expedite the government formation process.

 

Although endorsed by the majority of MPs in Parliament, Salam’s efforts to form the government have stalled due to differences between the country’s rival political blocs over the shape of the next Cabinet.

 

While the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition has called for a national unity Cabinet in which they are granted veto power, the Future Movement, which heads the March 14 coalition, has called for a nonpartisan Cabinet that excludes all major political parties.

 

Diplomats in Beirut also urged for swift government formation. British Ambassador Tom Fletcher who met Salam said Lebanon and the Lebanese “urgently need a new government,” adding that Salam had a strong mandate to form one.

 

Salam also met with the head of the European Union Delegation in Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst who highlighted the need to keep Lebanon at bay from the war raging in Syria.

 

Meanwhile, Hezbollah carried on with its campaign against March 14 demands to exclude the party from any new Cabinet with party officials insisting Hezbollah be involved in national government decisions.

 

Over the weekend, several Hezbollah officials – including Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem– argued that the March 14 officials were not in a position that allowed them to impose their conditions when it comes to the new government.

 

Speaking during a funeral service to mark one week since the passing away of a Hezbollah fighter who was killed fighting in Syria.

 

Hezbollah’s Sheikh Nabil Qaouk accused the March 14 coalition of delaying the formation of a new government by wagering on the crisis in neighboring Syria.

 

However, he stressed that “we will not be dragged into polemics with March 14 because our problem is with the masters of the scheme – the Americans who do not want good for the Lebanese.”

 

He accused Washington of seeking to aggravate internal divisions “so that there is no solution to the Lebanese crisis and no stability.”

 

Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad also stressed the importance of Hezbollah’s role in government decision-making.

 

“As long as we represent an important segment of the Lebanese society, no one can deny our existence or our role or the need to participate in national political decisions,” Raad said, according to the National News Agency.

 

Raad struck a more conciliatory tone toward March 14.

 

He stressed that Hezbollah was not seeking to destroy its rival parties.

 

“If you want true citizenship, divide our rights and duties equally and set up a government that provides the minimum possible justice, equity and balanced development in our regions,” the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc said, referring to a history of government neglect in Shiite areas.

 

“Let us avoid sectarian hatred rhetoric and deal [with one another] on the basis of citizenship in terms of rights and duties,” Raad added.

 

The Future Movement, which heads the opposition, insists that the future government be a nonpolitical one that excludes political party officials.

 

The Kataeb Party also urged Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam to stop delaying the formation of the next government.

 

“[We urge Salam to] abandon the policy of waiting because there may be a orchestrated plan to keep him as a suspended prime minister by tying the formation process to never-ending [deadlines] with the aim of ... keeping the country without a government,” the party said in a statement after its weekly meeting headed by former President Amin Gemayel.

 

The views of the Kataeb were echoed earlier by another March 14 leader – Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea – who urged Salam, nominated as premier-designate on April 6, to get on with the task of forming his Cabinet.

 

The previous government stepped down at the end of March.