Naharnet

Al-Rahi: We’re Awaiting Outcome of Committee’s Efforts on New Electoral Law

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stated on Wednesday that he was not informed that the Bkirki meeting that was supposed to be in April has been postponed.

He said: “We are still awaiting the outcome of the efforts of the follow-up committee that is studying the parliamentary electoral law.”

“We have still not received word of any new development in this matter,” said the patriarch upon his return to Lebanon from Egypt on Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Bishop Samir Mazloum denied that a conference of Maronite MPs that was set to be held in Bkirki in April was postponed to avoid a meeting between al-Rahi and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

He stressed that the April 3 meeting was postponed after the committee tasked with drafting a law on the parliamentary elections failed to complete its mission.

Asked at the airport on whether he will be visiting Syria any time, al-Rahi replied: “We will visit Syria when the situation there is stable.”

“If I visit it, I will do so not as a man of politics because we have stated in the past that we separate political work from that of the church,” he added.

“Similar to all official visits to foreign countries, we seek to meet local authorities because we want to express to them that the Christian and Lebanese diasporas are loyal to the countries that have harbored them,” he stated.


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