Al-Mustaqbal Rejects Giving Legitimacy to May 15 Session on Orthodox Vote Law

Al-Mustaqbal lawmakers rejected on Tuesday to provide legitimacy to a parliamentary session set for May 15 if the rival parties failed to reach consensus on a new electoral law.

In remarks to the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily, MP Ahmed Fatfat said al-Mustaqbal “will not give legitimacy to the session” set by Speaker Nabih Berri if the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal was put on its agenda.

MP Ammar Houri echoed similar remarks, telling Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5): “We will withdraw from the parliamentary session if the Orthodox proposal was discussed.”

The plan, which considers Lebanon a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system, has been approved by the joint parliamentary committees despite the rejection of al-Mustaqbal, the National Struggle Front and the March 14 alliance's independent lawmakers.

Berri did not put the plan on parliament's agenda immediately after its approval to give the rival lawmakers more time to agree on an alternative.

But he later set the May 15 session vowing to keep the MPs in parliament day and and night until they reach consensus on a substitute to the 1960 law that was used in the 2009 elections.

That law considers the qada an electoral district and is based on the winner-takes-all system. But most parties have rejected it for failing to guarantee the appropriate representation for all the Lebanese and mainly Christians.

Fatfat said in his remarks to al-Anbaa that al-Mustaqbal rejected granting Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement a “gift to control the country.”

Al-Mustaqbal believes that the Orthodox Gathering proposal, which is backed by Hizbullah and FPM chief Michel Aoun, is tailored to grant them hegemony.

The bloc “won't give Aoun the opportunity to achieve his political objective at the expense of the future of Lebanon and the Lebanese,” Fatfat said.

But he stressed that al-Mustaqbal will not vote either on any postponement of the elections to a period of more than six months.