Aoun from Bkirki: Parliament Vote on Electoral Proposals Only Alternative to 1960 Law

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Sunday noted that the only alternative to the 1960 electoral law is a vote in parliament on the draft electoral proposals.

“We put the patriarch in the picture of important developments regarding the ongoing dispute over the electoral law,” Aoun said after meeting Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki.

“We are before three solutions: the 1960 law, extension and the disaster of political vacuum,” Aoun noted.

But he added that "we can rescue the situation by voting on the electoral laws, as we're not obliged to accept the 1960 law, extension or vacuum."

Slamming those voicing stances against the 1960 electoral law, Aoun said: "Those launching theories do not have a solution, although they're claiming to be against the 1960 law."

"All laws must be put to a vote and those criticizing the 1960 law must give us an alternative," Aoun added.

Speaker Nabih Berri could call for a parliamentary session next week to vote on the extension of the legislature's mandate, parliamentary sources said Saturday.

The sources told several local dailies that the session would likely be held on Thursday, before the end of the ordinary session on May 31.

Parliament convenes twice a year in two ordinary sessions -- the first starts mid-march until the end of May and the second from the middle of October through the end of December.

Thursday's session will include discussions on the annulment of an article in the 1960 law that is linked to the participation of expatriates in the elections.

The session could witness a vote on a short extension of parliament's four-year mandate, which expires on June 20, to pave way for holding the polls by July 7, two days before the holy month of Ramadan.

The rival parties have failed to agree on a new electoral law despite the rejection of the majority of them of the 1960 law that was used in the 2009 polls.

But most parties have filed their candidacies under the 1960 law.