Parliamentary Session on Tuesday to Amend Deadlines of 1960 Law

Speaker Nabih Berri will call for a parliamentary session on Tuesday to amend the deadlines set by the 1960 electoral law, An Nahar newspaper said Sunday.

The daily said that a meeting of parliament’s bureau on Monday will lead to setting a legislative session for the next day to amend some of the articles hours before PM-designate Tammam Salam begins two days of consultations with parliamentary blocs to form his new government.

Change and Reform bloc MP Alain Aoun told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that Tuesday's national assembly “will witness a proposal to cancel the controversial law as part of efforts exerted to resolve the problem of the electoral law and giving a chance for agreement on a new consensus law.”

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel did not give details, only telling the newspaper that “work is underway at parliament to finish the draft of the new law.

He hoped for the quick formation of the new government to agree on the new vote law.

According to An Nahar, Tuesday's session will not witness discussion on any of the proposals made to replace the 1960 law that considers the qada an electoral district and is based on the winner-takes-all system.

President Michel Suleiman signed on Saturday a decree that calls for the postponement of the parliamentary elections that were set to be held on June 9 for one week.

The deadline for submitting the nominations for the June 16 polls was also extended from April 10 to 24.

The rival parties have so far failed to agree on an electoral draft-law after the leaders and representatives of the four major Christian parties - the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange Party and the Marada Movement - agreed to suspend the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal, leaving the door open for rival MPs to strike a deal on a new electoral draft-law.

An Nahar quoted Suleiman as telling lawmakers, who attended the consultations for the nomination of a premier-designate at Baabda palace on Friday and Saturday, that a second postponement of the elections was not possible.

“There is no other way but to hold a parliamentary session to discuss the amendment of the deadlines set by the 1960 law because if a new law was not issued, then I would be forced to commit to the 1960 law,” he said.