Report: Parliamentary Subcommittee Seeks to Revive Vote Law Meetings

A parliamentary subcommittee whose main task was to draft an electoral law will revive its meetings in an attempt to strike a deal on the vote law, An Nahar newspaper reported on Friday.

The daily said that the subcommittee's members held contacts on Thursday night to discuss the possibility of resuming their meetings under the chairmanship of MP Robert Ghanem.

The contacts led to an agreement to meet in parliament next Tuesday as part of their efforts to revive the committee with the blessing of Speaker Nabih Berri, An Nahar said.

The report came as the parliament endorsed a draft-law that sets the deadline for submitting nominations to the parliamentary polls to three weeks before the June 16 elections date.

It also stipulates that the deadline for withdrawing candidacies is 15 days ahead of the polls, rather than 45.

The endorsement came despite the boycott of MP Walid Jumblat's National Struggle Front that considered the move unconstitutional.

The subcommittee was in October tasked with agreeing on a new electoral law over the rejection of the majority of political parties of the 1960 law that was used in the 2009 polls.

Its meetings came to a standstill in February when its members failed to reach an agreement on the new vote law. It referred its report to the joint parliamentary committees, which later adopted the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal despite the objection of al-Mustaqbal bloc, the National Struggle Front and the March 14 alliance's independent Christian MPs.

But the plan was earlier this month brought to a standstill by its supporters – the four major Christian parties – during a meeting they held under Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki.

The Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange party and the Marada movement suspended the proposal in a bid to give rival groups a chance to agree on an alternative law.

But they also vowed not to run for elections under the 1960 law.