Change and Reform: Extension and 1960 Law are Worse than Vacuum

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc stressed Tuesday that the 1960 electoral law or another extension of the parliament's term are both “worse than vacuum.”

“The head of the Free Patriotic Movement has presented several proposals regarding the electoral law and we are keen on understanding and accord during this new (presidential) tenure,” Change and Reform secretary MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the bloc's weekly meeting in Rabieh.

“All initiative and draft laws have been rejected so what do they want? Are they seeking procrastination? Do they want to return to the 1960 law?” Kanaan added.

“To us, extension and the 1960 law are both worse than vacuum,” the lawmaker stressed.

President Michel Aoun, the founder of the FPM, had recently announced that he prefers parliamentary vacuum over the 1960 law or another extension of the parliament's term.

He later refrained from signing a decree that calls on electoral bodies to prepare for parliamentary elections in May.

Speaker Nabih Berri has announced in recent days that elections under the 1960 law would be better than parliamentary vacuum.

The political parties are meanwhile discussing a so-called hybrid electoral law that mixes proportional representation with the winner-takes-all system.