BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri Tuesday said he opposes extending Parliament’s term for another year, adding that any extension should be confined to the time it would need to lay the groundwork for elections. “As speaker of the Parliament, I have set the date of the session on May 15 to avoid a vacuum, and I gave ... this chance so that the parties can reach an electoral law. I would not have agreed on the extension except to reach a new [electoral] law,” he said in a statement.

“I am against the extension of Parliament’s term for a year, and even if we are heading toward the currently applicable law then the extension should be limited to the necessary time to conduct the elections by altering the time frame [for the electoral processes], and this extension will not exceed five months.”

He also called for “swift” arrangements in case elections are to be held based on the current 1960 majoritarian law “which include establishing a committee to oversee the elections.”

“Going back to the applicable law means that we have wasted three to four months from the date when elections ought to take place,” he added. “As to what was said about shifting electoral seats as a condition to holding the elections based on the 1960 [law], let them get this idea out of their heads.”

President Michel Aoun has expressed the view that any extension of Parliament’s term would be akin to “corruption” and assured the Lebanese public that even if the May 20 deadline passed with no new electoral law in place “there would be no vacuum in the institutions.”

“If the Lebanese people give up on their rights to vote for their representatives in the Parliament, then Lebanon will become a dictatorship,” the president said during a meeting with the Beirut Bar Association. “[An] extension of Parliament’s [term] should not happen. No one should threaten us with this because it entails ruin for Lebanon.”

Aoun condemned any plans to extend the Parliament’s tenure for a third term, or a return to a political vacuum. “I have a duty toward the Lebanese people because the situation cannot remain this way,” he added. “We don’t accept that there is an extension, neither do we accept a vacuum [in Parliament].”

Foreign Minister and Aoun’s son-in-law Gebran Bassil said officials were in the process of debating the finer points of a new electoral law.

“We don’t all agree on the same proportional electoral law,” he said during a news conference after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting, adding that differences persisted as politicians are yet to agree over voting blocs and other technicalities and logistics. “We have to agree on it soon or have the matter voted on in Cabinet or Parliament,” he added. “Even though we [the FPM] have the majority, we are calling for a proportional law or a hybrid law. We are thinking of an electoral law for every Lebanese.”

Bassil also dismissed critics of the Free Patriotic Movement during the electoral law debates, accusing critics of “instilling fear and terror” into Lebanese Christians over the FPM’s stance on the new vote law. He also blasted politicians for retaining “dual positions.”

“They say something while we are discussing [the electoral law] and say something different when speaking to the media,” he added.

Parliament was set to hold a legislative session on April 13 to extend its term by another year, but Aoun postponed the session until May 15 in order to make room for further deliberations among political parties.

If no consensus is reached by May 20, Parliament’s term will come to an end, marking what would be an unprecedented political crisis in Lebanon: the absence of a legislature. At that point, the Constitution dictates that the elections ought to be held based on the current electoral system, the 1960 law.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai said he considers an unjustified extension of the lawmakers’ term as an exploitation of power. “I pray for the Parliament to look at the interests of Lebanon and the Lebanese people before the deadline, which is May 15, and create a new electoral law that suits the nation, not just a few people,” he said. The patriarch had previously voiced his support for the 1960 law if no agreement is reached before deadline.

Separately, Prime Minister Saad Hariri met with U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag. “I reiterated the welcome we extended to his visit ... to the south in the recent days,” she said following the meeting, in a statement released by Hariri’s office. “In the same context, we discussed the opportunities to expand our support to build the capacity of the Lebanese armed forces,” she added.