Electoral Law Awaiting Political Forces Agreement

Lebanese political forces are preparing to hold private and broad meetings to determine their stances on the new electoral law that the cabinet had pledged to finalize.

It vowed in its policy statement to finalize it a year before the parliamentary elections are to be held in 2013.

The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Thursday that the electoral law options include considering Lebanon as one electoral district on the basis of proportionality, or maintaining the current electoral district division with the possibility of merging the small districts in one on the basis of merging the majority election and the proportional representation systems.

The daily added that President Michel Suleiman prefers adopting a new electoral law based on proportionality to ease the current sectarian division, especially between the Sunnis and Shiites.

Bkirki sources told the newspaper that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said that he will call for a meeting at his summer residence in Diman to be held away from the media glare.

The sources revealed that the agenda of the meeting will include “the electoral law that the Maronites favors.”

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told An Nahar on Thursday that the electoral law is being discussed and will be ready in “three months at most.”

“I am exercising my duties and the decision is in the hands of the parliament,” he stated.

Concerning the participation of the Lebanese expatriates in the elections, the minister said that there is a certain mechanism that the Foreign Ministry is devising and the immigrants will have to submit their official papers according to it.

In addition, Charbel told the daily that the ministry is continuing its work in issuing and correcting Lebanese identification cards.