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Baroud: better to postpone polls until reforms ratified

The Daily Star
Posted on Wednesday November 18, 2009

BEIRUT: The late formation of a new Cabinet, four months after the 2009 parliamentary election, is expected to delay the municipal elections scheduled for May 2010. The Parliament is expected to postpone holding the local polls – one of the many challenges facing the newly formed unity government – given the need to ratify several electoral reforms governing the process.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud stressed that it was better to postpone the elections for a fixed period of time, in order to allow for the ratification of electoral reforms, rather than postponing those reforms another six years.

However, Baroud expressed his ministry’s readiness to carry out the municipal elections within the legal deadline if the Parliament carries out the necessary amendments promptly.

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