BEIRUT: No Future Movement candidate will be running for parliamentary elections if they are held on schedule, MP Jean Ogassapian said according to remarks published Sunday.
“The Future’s candidates for parliamentary elections will withdraw their candidacies if the decision was made to carry out those elections,” Ogassapian told Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
The Future Movement has repeatedly said that Parliamentary elections should not be held until Lebanon elects a new head of state. The country has been without a president since Michel Sleiman's term ended in May.
The “circumstances are exceptional,” Ogassapian said.
“The elections cannot be prepared for in any way, especially in terms of electoral campaigns and gathering votes,” he added.
The party says that holding parliamentary polls during a presidential vacuum weakens the state. Its members are voicing support for an extension of Parliament's term.
The current lawmakers have occupied their seats since they were elected to four-year terms in 2009. But legislators voted last year to extend their terms by 17 months over disagreements on approving a new electoral law.
The next elections are scheduled for Nov. 21, 2014, but lawmakers are expected to approve another extension amid some protests by several political parties and activists.
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