BEIRUT: Disputes lingered Wednesday during the sixth meeting of a parliamentary subcommittee tasked with drafting a new election law, with electoral districting emerging as the major point of contention.
Speaking after chairing the session, MP Robert Ghanem said members of the subcommittee had begun implementing a mechanism they agreed on in their last meeting to study the proposed draft election laws.
One of the draft laws was presented by MP Ali Bazzi, from Speaker Nabih Berri’s parliamentary bloc.
According to the bill, half of the lawmakers would be elected based on proportional representation and the other half according to a winner-takes-all system.
Another voting system proposed by the Future Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party and the Lebanese Forces, stipulates that 60 lawmakers would be elected under a winner-takes-all system and the remaining 68 based on proportional representation.
“We began implementing the mechanism which stipulates that we agree on districting, whether in areas where a winner-takes-all system will be implemented or districts where proportional representation will be adopted,” said Ghanem, who chairs Parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee.
He added that issues on which agreement was not possible now were put aside and would be tackled in later sessions.
“But we also agreed on several points in the draft law presented by colleague Ali Bazzi,” Ghanem said. “We have made progress and discussions were objective and serious.”
Ghanem explained that the election draft laws under discussion took into consideration the particularity of all Lebanese sects.
He said that members of the subcommittee wanted the new election law to provide fair representation to all sects in line with the Taif Accord, which ended the country’s 1975-90 Civil War.
Unlike the last meeting, the Kataeb Party attended the talks, and were represented by MP Elie Marouni.
In addition, MP Alaaeddine Terro represented the PSP instead of MP Marwan Hamade.
Sources familiar with the talks said that there was still disagreement among political parties over electoral districting.
The panel, which represents most political parties in the country, was given a one-month deadline that expires at the end of December to agree on a unified electoral draft law to replace the one based on the 1960 law, which was adopted in the last parliamentary elections in 2009.
The current law is deemed unfair by the Christian community.
Ghanem said that Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan reiterated during the meeting that he discussed with Berri the possibility of holding a Parliament session at the beginning of next year to put all election draft laws to a vote in case the subcommittee failed to agree on one.
Speaking to The Daily Star, Adwan said that in case a Parliament session was not scheduled for early next year, this would encourage the subcommittee to drag on with discussions.
But hitting back, MP Qassem Hashem, from Berri’s bloc, said a Parliament session to endorse a new election law would only be held after the election of a new president.
He said this was stipulated in the law which the legislature passed last month to extend its term for two years and seven months and also reflected Berri’s view. The extension was the second in less than two years.
The subcommittee is set to hold three sessions next week.
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