Al-Rahi's Envoy Meets Berri, Jumblat: Lebanon Will Lose Int'l Respect if it Fails to Hold Elections

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's envoy Beirut bishop Boulos Matar stressed the need for political powers to reach an agreement over a new parliamentary electoral law and staging the polls, various media reports said Saturday.

According to al-Joumhouria, Matar quoted al-Rahi as saying: “Lebanon will lose the respect of several countries if its failed to agree on a vote law and stage the elections.”

He made his remarks after holding separate talks on Friday with Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat.

Matar denied to al-Joumhouria that he had delivered to the two officials a draft electoral law or an initiative to end the deadlock over the vote law.

He explained that he had received from al-Rahi a telephone call urging him to hand Berri and Jumblat a “certain message,” which entails the need to reach an agreement over an electoral law.

“Failure to resolve this issue will prevent Lebanon from overcoming this important moment in our history with very little losses,” he stated.

To that end, al-Rahi requested that any initiative be presented to end the dispute, said Matar.

Jumblat meanwhile told As Safir newspaper Saturday that the patriarch's envoy “did not propose an initiative, but he simply inquired about the efforts to reach an agreement over the electoral law.”

“I pledged to him that we will keep him informed of any positive development in this file,” he added.

The PSP leader revealed that he had tasked caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour to follow up on this issue with Matar.

Berri's circles stressed that the speaker will maintain his efforts over the electoral law until the May 15 deadline that he had set for the political powers to resolve this issue, reported al-Liwaa newspaper Saturday.

He is set to call parliament to session whether they agree on a new law or not.

The joint parliamentary committees had approved in February the Orthodox Gathering electoral law, which divides Lebanon into a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.

The draft law has been rejected by President Michel Suleiman, caretaker Premier Najib Miqati, the Mustaqbal bloc, Jumblat's centrist National Struggle Front, and the March 14 opposition’s Christian independent MPs.

They said that the law deepens sectarian divisions in Lebanon.

Berri's hybrid electoral proposed law, based on 26 districts, calls for electing half of the lawmakers in the new parliament based on the winner-takes-all system, with the other half elected under the proportional representation system.

Jumblat's proposed electoral law calls for the election of 70 percent of MPs based on the winner-takes-all system and the rest based on the proportional representation system.