Prime Minister Saad Hariri lashed out at Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat without naming him, as he assured that corruption accusations will not stop the “eager” efforts to provide the country, mainly Tripoli, with electricity.

“Electricity will come to Tripoli. There are new political figures who are giving us lessons while their history is known for being corrupt,” said Hariri.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said on Friday that a six months time period is needed to train the employees on the new electoral system before staging the parliamentary elections.

A patrol from the anti-narcotics bureau of the Internal Security Forces in the North stopped a bid to smuggle one ton of cannabis hidden in an asphalt roller, the ISF said in a statement on Friday.

“Anti-narcotics bureau obtained information about a senior drug trafficker's bid to smuggle a heavy machine, which could contain narcotic substances, outside the Lebanese borders through the Wadi Khaled area,” said the statement.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said on Friday from Bkirki that an electoral law based on proportional representation was en route to completion.

“The entire electoral law discussions have been appropriate to reinstate our coexistence and diversity, where one enjoys a sense of privacy and simultaneously preserves multiplicity,” said Bassil after meeting Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah received Foreign Minister and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, where talks focused on the parliamentary electoral law, al-Akhbar daily reported on Friday.

The meeting took place a “few days ago” and it looked into “an integrated proposal as for a voting system format that was submitted by Bassil with a post-election roadmap, ” said the daily.

Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Alain Aoun stressed on Thursday that President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri are not in a dispute and the misunderstanding between the two is a mere “divergence of views.”

A “silent” crisis lingering since April between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has exploded in public as the two men indirectly traded corruption accusations, al-Akhbar daily reported on Thursday.

The crisis began first in April when Hariri supported the so-called qualification “sectarian” parliamentary electoral law, proposed by Foreign Minister and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, which Jumblat criticized as a format that marginalizes his role and the Druze community, said the daily.

The Marada Movement has raised concerns of vacuum at the legislative authority and accused the Free Patriotic Movement of driving the country into vacuum and having the parliamentary elections staged based on the controversial majoritarian 1960 law, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

“The FPM is seeking vacuum despite its repeated assertions that it is not. Its deeds indicate so far a desire to turn to the 1960 law,” Marada sources told the daily on condition of anonymity.

Speaker Nabih Berri reiterated on Wednesday rejection of any attempt to reallocate parliamentary seats from one electoral district to another, pointing out that he would call for another extraordinary parliament session if the June 5 meeting fails to convene, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

Countdown towards an agreement on a new voting system has reportedly begun, as attention turns to an official annual Ramadan banquet hosted by President Michel Aoun at the Presidential Palace on Thursday, after a 4-year break, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

“Aoun has invited top Lebanese officials to an Iftar including Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Speaker Nabih Berri, Muslim and Christian religious authorities, former Presidents and PMs, ministers, deputies, military and security leaders, economic and social bodies and others,” well-informed sources told the daily.