Report: Contentious Supervisory Committee to be Raised at Cabinet Despite Aoun's Decline
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq will raise a contentious issue during the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, related to appointing a committee to supervise the parliamentary polls, which was strongly rejected earlier by President Michel Aoun for linkage to the controversial 1960 electoral law, al-Joumhouria daily reported.
Ministerial sources told the daily that Mashnouq might raise the issue today because the parliamentary electoral legal framework compel him to do so. Adding to that are the looming electoral deadlines, they said.
It is believed that shall the supervisory committees be appointed, it would mean that the elections will be held based on the contentious 1960 law.
In an earlier cabinet meeting, Mashnouq had requested appointing the supervisory committee to overlook the parliamentary polls. But, Aoun rejected the proposal and said it would pave way for staging the election under the 1960 law.
Aoun had recently warned that he prefers “vacuum” over holding the parliamentary polls under the 1960 electoral law or another extension of the parliament's term. He also announced that he might call for a popular referendum should the political forces fail to reach a new electoral law.
The political parties are bickering over amending the current election law which divides seats among the different religious sects.
While al-Mustaqbal has rejected that the electoral law be fully based on proportional representation, arguing that Hizbullah's arms would prevent serious competition in the party's strongholds, Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat has totally rejected proportional representation, even within a hybrid law, warning that it would “marginalize” the minority Druze community.
Hizbullah, Mustaqbal, the Free Patriotic Movement, AMAL Movement and the Lebanese Forces are meanwhile discussing several formats of a so-called hybrid electoral law that mixes proportional representation with the winner-takes-all system.
The country has not organized parliamentary elections since 2009 and the legislature has instead twice extended its own mandate.
The last polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the next vote is scheduled for May.
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