Bishop Matar Meets Suleiman, Saniora, Abu Faour over Vote Row

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, who is currently abroad, dispatched on Tuesday Beirut Bishop Boulos Matar to President Michel Suleiman, al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora and caretaker Minister Wael Abou Faour as part of efforts to resolve the elections crisis.

“We discussed the elections and the electoral law that we are looking forward to in Lebanon,” the bishop said after meeting Saniora.

A presidential statement said Matar briefed Suleiman on his latest meetings with several officials on the electoral law. It did not elaborate.

The bishop met later Abou Faour, who is a member of Walid Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party. MP Akram Shehayyeb attended the meeting.

Matar met on Friday with Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat.

He said following his separate talks with Berri and Jumblat that the discussions focused on the need to hold the polls on time through an electoral law that is fair to everyone.

Lebanon's rival March 8 and March 14 alliances have so far failed to agree on a new law that would govern the elections.

Speaker Nabih Berri has set a May 15 parliamentary session that would have the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal on its agenda for being the only plan that was approved by the joint parliamentary committees unless an agreement is reached on an alternative plan before that date.

But several blocs and independent MPs are likely to challenge it even if it was adopted by parliament, which will bring the country back to the 1960 law that was used in the 2009 polls.

That law considers the qada an electoral district and is based on the winner-takes-all system. But most parties have rejected it despite their failure to reach consensus on a new plan.