On Thursday the 15th of June 2017 a workshop took place at the Lebanese Parliament in Beirut under the title “Electoral Disputes Resolution in Lebanon: The Current Procedures and Future Perspective”.
The general aim of the workshop was to study the process of the resolution of the disputes resulting from the whole electoral process, that is, at the three phases of the electoral process,
Phase 1: During the preparation for elections, before the elections day.
Phase 2: During the elections day
Phase 3: After the elections day
The workshop was organized by the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil peace, and in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
The workshop took place under the patronage of Speaker Nabih Berri.
The workshop included four sessions; the first session was the opening session where a number of speakers had opening words who are; Dr. Antoine Massara, President of the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace, Mrs. Hana Nasser representing Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and H.E. MP Robert Ghannem representing H.E. Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Parliament
After the opening session, a key note study was presented by Mrs. Mireille Najem Chikrallah on Electoral Disputes Resolution from a comparative approach.
The second session was about: Electoral disputes during the preparatory phase and on polling day, discussing the Role of the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, role of the State Council, role of registration committees, role of the committee supervising the electoral campaign, role of civil society organizations. A number of speakers had contributed to this session who are; H.E. Former Minister Zaid Baroud chaired the session, Judge Ghaleb Ghanem – Former Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, Judge Youssef el Joumail representing the state council, Mr. Atallah Ghasham - Former Director General, Ministry of Interior and Municipalities.
The third session was about: Electoral disputes after the announcement of the results, discussing the role of the Constitutional Council and its powers as an electoral judge after the announcement of the results by the ministry of interior, the principles of submitting the review before the Constitutional Council and the conditions for its acceptance form, the value of the reports of the committee on supervision of the electoral campaign and the extent of its commitment, the value of reports issued by civil society organizations and the extent of the obligation. A number of speakers had contributed to this session who are; H.E. MP Nawar Sahili – Rapporteur of the parliamentary committee on justice and administration chaired the session, Dr. Issam Suleiman - Chairman of the Constitutional Council, and MP Ghassan Mukheiber – Parliamentary Committee on Administration and Justice.
The Fourth and last session was allocated for synthesis and recommendation where Dr. Antoine Massara, President of the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace presented some ballot points as a general synthesis on this workshop.