Aoun Opens Extraordinary Legislative Session, Promises 'Balanced' Electoral Law in 'Coming Days'

President Michel Aoun on Thursday signed a key decree opening an extraordinary legislative session and announced that the country will have a new and “balanced” electoral law in the “coming days.”

The decree also carried the signature of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and was inked a few hours before an annual Ramadan iftar banquet at the Baabda Palace that was attended by Speaker Nabih Berri, MP Walid Jumblat, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and a host of political, religious and social figures.

The decree stipulates that the session will begin on June 7 and end on June 20 and that it will be “exclusively limited to the approval of a new electoral law.”

“Finalizing the electoral law in the coming days will restore confidence and reflect a will to improve popular representation and make it more balanced,” Aoun said in a televised speech during the banquet.

“The state can only rise through the synergy of good wills in order to achieve the country's interest. Any step on this path is a success for us all and any retreat is a failure for us all,” the president added.

“All solutions become easy when you put the country's interest before all other interests,” he noted.

“This presidential tenure's main objective is to build a strong state,” Aoun went on to say. “Our national unity is a security valve... We must not allow any event to threaten our national unity,” he added.

A closed-door meeting between Aoun, Berri and Hariri preceded the iftar banquet and the president held talks later with Jumblat.

Hariri announced later that the parties have agreed on an electoral law based on full proportional representation in 15 districts and that "some details will be finalized in the next two days."