Postponement of Lebanon’s daylight savings time leads to political outrage

Lebanon postponed the start of daylight savings by almost a month, just days before the clocks were due to change on Sunday.

The announcement was made by the secretary general of the caretaker cabinet, who acted on Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s decision to “exceptionally” amend the change.

No other reason was given. Daylight savings will be introduced from midnight on the 20th of April.

The move comes as Muslims mark the fasting month of Ramadan.

It means those fasting will break their fast an hour earlier than if the clocks had changed.

As of Friday 24 March, the sun was predicated to set at 5.52PM Beirut time.

In Lebanon’s bitterly divided political scene, the move was met with outage

Gebran Bassil, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement party and a frequent critic of Mr Mikati, called the move “unacceptable”.

Given the short notice, and the fact that Lebanon’s daylights saving hours are normally aligned with Europe, it was unclear how the move might affect things like electronic devices.

Flag carrier Middle East Airlines announced that it will bring flights forward by an hour to not affect any passengers taking flight transfers.

Amid the daylight saving decision, footage was leaked of a discussion between Mr Mikati and parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri over the debacle.

 Berri was seen telling Mikati that “Egypt and everyone are keeping the clock unchanged.”

“Instead of (fast-breaking time) being at 7:00 (pm), let’s keep it at 6:00 (pm) from now until the end of Ramadan,” Berri added.

The head of the “Lebanese Forces” party, Samir Geagea, urged Mikati to reverse his decision over the daylight savings time

“I am surprised by the government’s decision not to follow the tradition that has been followed in Lebanon, for decades, by forwarding the clock by one hour in March of each year, which is still, until now, approved in most countries of the world.”

The government is called upon to reverse its decision before it is too late, i.e. before evening.” tomorrow, and before subjecting the business community in Lebanon to many additional difficulties.”

Mikati scared of Berri

The owner of the “Third Lebanon Republic” initiative, Omar Harfouche, wrote in a post on his Facebook page,

“The story of the hour. It was clear that Berri orders and Mikati implements like the tutu ( lightweight ) .”

He added, “It is clear that Najib ( Mikati) is afraid of Nabih ( Berri) . Lebanon is at their disposal. Lebanon is theirs with its land, wealth, people and time. I mean, they control even time. They play with the clock as they want. They do not care about Lebanon’s connection to its international environment.”

Harfouche continued, “But the most dangerous thing is that they lie about Ramadan. They want to fast an hour less, deceiving the religion as if Lebanon is Muslim. Lebanese Christians have no say in it. The time in Lebanon is Muslim and Christians have to adapt with it.”