Lebanon: Cabinet to resume discussion on election law next week

Major News in <The Daily Star>:  Cabinet to resume discussion on election law next week

The Cabinet agreed Tuesday to hold a third session next week to resume  discussion of a draft electoral law based on a system of proportional  representation after failing to reach agreement in two meetings.

“The Cabinet continued studying and debating the parliamentary election draft  law. The texts of articles relating to the voting system were read article by  article,” Information Minister Walid Daouk told reporters after the Cabinet  meeting chaired by President Michel Sleiman at Baabda Palace.

He said that the ministers also examined the size of electoral districts,  the formation and the mission of a committee designed to supervize the 2013  parliamentary elections and electoral lists.

Daouk said Prime Minister Najib Mikati called the Cabinet to meet at  Beiteddine Palace next Monday to continue debating the draft electoral law based  on proportional representation presented by Interior Minister Marwan  Charbel.

Daouk said there were differences of opinion in the Cabinet on some articles  in the draft electoral law, including the issue of proportional representation  and the number of electoral districts. He added the Cabinet did not put the  divisive articles of the draft law to a vote.

The Cabinet failed at its meeting Monday to agree on all the articles of the  draft law amid divisions between rival political factions on a new law that can  best represent the Lebanese in next year’s elections.

None of Charbel’s four proposals to dividing electoral districts was agreed  upon during Monday’s session. The proposals call for adopting 10-14 medium-sized  districts.

Sleiman has voiced his support for a draft electoral law based on  proportional representation and vowed to prevent a return to the 1960 election  law which adopts the qada as an electoral district and was used in the 2009  round.

Speaker Nabih Berri, Mikati, Hezbollah and its March 8 allies, including  Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, have voiced support for an  electoral law based on proportional representation.

However, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party  leader Walid Jumblatt have rejected such a draft electoral law. Jumblatt has  repeatedly voiced his objection to a law based on proportional representation,  fearing that it would diminish his parliamentary bloc.

Charbel said a Cabinet vote on proportional representation would decide if  this draft law is applicable in next year’s elections. He told the Voice of  Lebanon radio station that only the PSP rejected the proposal. He added that a  large segment of the Lebanese rejected the 1960 electoral law.

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