“Lebanon Debate”
In a remarkable development in the crisis line of the Ras Nahash municipality, and days before the end of the deadline set for the governor of the north to submit the resignations of six members of the municipal council to the Ministry of Interior, in preparation for announcing the dissolution of the council, the “Lebanese Forces” again entered the settlement line, amid information about the tendency of a number of resigned members to retract their resignations, which may practically destroy the hypothesis of dissolving the municipality.
According to the details obtained by “Lebanon Debate,” the crisis began after the resignation of two members of the list that won alongside the current mayor, Badr Al-Murad, coinciding with the resignation of four members of the competing list, so that the municipal council was formed on the basis of the results of the recent elections.
As the legal process for the resignations approached completion, the “Lebanese Forces” moved through a special envoy from Maarab, through the head of the Batroun District Municipalities Union, Roger Yazbek, who held contacts and meetings with Dr. Khaled Hammoud, who had joined the resignations, along with a colleague of his from the same list, in protest against the performance of the mayor, noting that Hammoud was one of the most prominent people who contributed to bringing her to the mayor’s office.
According to the information, the communications succeeded in reaching a settlement formula requiring Hammoud to return his resignation, and to assume the presidency of the municipality after the end of half of the current term, that is, during the last three years of the municipal council’s term.
This settlement, if confirmed, would radically change the course of the crisis, as Hammoud’s retraction of his resignation would practically mean the collapse of the basis that could have led to the dissolution of the Municipal Council, after the number of resignations was no longer sufficient to achieve this.
In parallel, the other resigned members are holding a meeting today to discuss the possibility of retracting their resignations, in light of the new data that has made their continuation outside the Council less feasible than returning to it. As the possibility of dissolving the municipality disappears, the option of remaining within the council and participating in the next stage becomes more beneficial for them, rather than leaving the municipal council entirely to the current mayor.
Accordingly, the crisis appears to be at a new crossroads, after it moved from an escalatory path that threatened to dissolve the Municipal Council to a path that may lead to the reunification of the council, with an implicit agreement to rotate the presidency in the middle of the term, if the communications succeed in confirming the retraction of all those who resigned. The picture is expected to become clearer after the members’ meeting today, and before the end of the legal deadline on August 30.
