Sources: Berri Fears More Divisions over Electoral Draft-Law

Speaker Nabih Berri has lamented that Lebanese rival political parties were seeking the adoption of an electoral law that gives them the majority of seats in parliament, a move that would take Lebanon to more divisions, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Friday.

Al-Hayat quoted Berri's sources as saying that “the electoral calculations could take back Lebanon to a new round of vertical divisions between the (opposition) March 14 and March 8 (majority) alliances.”

“The alternative will be the commitment to the division of power between Christians and Muslims by electing 64 MPs based on a winner-takes-all system and the remaining half based on proportionality,” the speaker reportedly said.

March 8 sees proportionality as a gateway for clinching the majority of seats after the elections while the opposition is advocating the division of Lebanon into small districts to emerge victorious in the polls, he said.

Berri has been advocating a hybrid draft-law that combines both winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems in an attempt to appease all factions.

The main Christian parties – the Free Patriotic Movement, the Phalange, the Lebanese Forces and Marada – have announced support for the adoption of the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal which calls for a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.

But al-Mustaqbal movement, the Progressive Socialist Party and independent March 14 Christians have criticized it for harming the social fabric.