Report: Electoral Law Meeting at Foreign Ministry 'Fails'
Efforts to reach a consensual electoral law to rule Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary polls continue but without any foreseeable results, al-Joumhouria daily said on Saturday.
Each political party "washes its hands of failure" to agree on a new law while maintaining adamant positions and distances itself from the complexity of the situation, which complicates things even further and obstructs an agreement, it added.
The latest meeting between representatives of the country’s main political parties at the Foreign Ministry on Friday, reflects the reality of the situation amid reports that it failed to record a breakthrough.
The daily quoted unnamed sources that participated in the meeting as saying: “No breakthrough has been recorded. The debate was closer to absurd, discussions went back to below zero.”
Thursday's meeting included Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, MPs Ibrahim Kanaan and Alain Aoun of the FPM, Hizbullah secretary general's political aide Hussein al-Khalil, Lebanese Forces deputy head MP George Adwan, Prime Minister Saad Hariri's adviser Nader Hariri and MP Ghazi Aridi of the Progressive Socialist Party.
Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, the political assistant of Speaker Nabih Berri did not attend.
According to information obtained by the daily, Bassil has insisted on his qualification law proposal dubbing it as “the best solution” for the complicated electoral situation.
Nader Hariri supported Bassil, while the representative of Hizbullah expressed fundamental remarks about his proposal.
The position of the Lebanese Forces was not fully supportive, and Adwan made a series of observations about the ability of this proposal to attract political consensus, reported the newspaper.
However, the most prominent was the position of representative of the Progressive Socialist Party, Aridi, who gave a “lengthy strong-worded speech rejecting Bassil's proposal.”
Aridi said: “You said we should consensually agree on a law, but we notice now that you retracted,” as he warned against putting the law for a vote at the parliament saying “this is dangerous and could divide the country.”
“We support a proportional representation system, so let us discuss that. A qualification sectarian system is totally rejected. Although you claim to abolish sectarianism, here you are suggesting the qualification system which deepens it even further.”
Source: Naharnet
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