Geagea Hints LF to Vote for Orthodox Proposal in Parliament for Lack of Consensus Plan

by Naharnet Newsdesk 02 March 2013, 07:45

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea anticipated accusations of his party's approval of the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal during a future parliamentary session, saying no other serious consensus plans had been made.

“We haven't so far seen any serious move towards any consensus proposal 10 days after the approval of the Orthodox Gathering proposal by the joint parliamentary committees,” Geagea told An Nahar daily published on Saturday.

“On the contrary, some (parties) went back to the government's proposal,” he said about a draft-law that divides Lebanon into 13 districts based on proportionality. “But everyone knows that this plan was buried two months ago.”

“I have a feeling that some (sides) are trying to win time to keep the old” 1960 law, Geagea said, adding “this wold harm everyone because the absolute majority of the Lebanese no longer want it.”

The law, which governed the 2009 elections with some amendments, adopts the qada as an electoral district based on a winner-takes-all system.

The joint committees approved the Orthodox proposal, which considers Lebanon as a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own lawmakers under a proportional representation system, despite the rejection of the opposition al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front and the March 14 opposition's independent Christian MPs.

Speaker Nabih Berri has so far procrastinated in calling for a parliamentary session to approve the plan, saying he was giving rival parties some time to reach consensus on another draft-law.

However, Geagea, whose LF was among several blocs that voted for the Orthodox proposal at the joint committees meeting, said: “We will be asked why we supported this and that proposal at a time when we didn't see any serious move towards other consensual plans.”

Geagea seemed to be hinting to a decision by the LF to vote on the proposal at the National Assembly if Berri invites lawmakers to a session to approve a draft-law for the elections scheduled to be held on June 9.

Comments 9

mckinl 02 March 2013, 08:00

Aoun certainly did. By introducing the gathering proposal Aoun put Geagea on the spot with his supporters. Geagea had to open his party up for new membership to try and stem the tide against the LF Party.

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mckinl 02 March 2013, 12:39

@ karim_m1

Exactly right ... The Christians, Shiia, Druze and even moderate Sunnis know that the enemy on the horizon are the salafists.

They also know that they would all get better treatment with M8 than with M14. Indeed Kataeb and the LF are bleeding members.

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Poisonfang (Guest) 02 March 2013, 08:03

:) No The Lebanese Christians want 64 MPs and all of them know it. Either they back it up or they are FLAMED politically :)

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still edunotec (Guest) 02 March 2013, 09:33

@Flamethrower, Aoun didnt make anybody do anything. Kataeb and ouwet are and will always be the backbone of the lebanese resistance. I agree Geagea will never be Bachir, as well as Aoun , and lets not even talk about Amine, but those parties have always stood for lebanese christians rights. The only thing that happened was lack of consensus between all the christian parties and their allies. there is no law hezbollah wouldnt approve, cause anyway its doing what it wants, with or without having the majority of MPS. What happened is that the strongest christian parties ( FPM, LF, Kataeb, Marada, A7rar) all saw this syrian crisis hheading to a sectarian war between chiittes and sunniite both implicated to the BONE in the syrian conflict. Their allies are caught up with the syrian war and they found an opportunity to both let their allies destroy each other without even lifting a single machinegun. Sunniite leaders dont want this law and chiites dont care.

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