Bkirki Rejects Proportional Representation Based on 13 Districts
Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad revealed on Tuesday that the seat of the Maronite church rejects the new proportional representation draft law that was approved by the cabinet earlier this month.
“Bkirki rejects the draft law that divided the country into 13 districts because all the Lebanese failed to agree on it,” Ghayyad told al-Joumhouria newspaper.
He pointed out that Bkirki aims at reaching an electoral law that fairly represents all the Lebanese.
“The Bkirki committee will continue to exert efforts to find the appropriate proposal which would be applicable” and approved by all parties, Ghayyad noted.
The committee that is made up of the four major Christian parties – the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange and Marada movement - was formed under Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi to draft a law that guarantees the best representation for Christians.
However, it failed to agree on an appropriate proposal.
The government’s draft-law that is based on proportional representation and 13 electoral districts was also criticized by al-Mustaqbal movement and the Progressive Socialist Party.
Concerning relations between Bkirki and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Ghayyad stressed that “there has been no direct contacts between the two.”
He denied that Bkirki has relations with the regime “as Bkirki doesn’t go beyond the state and holds no personal relations with foreign countries.”
Ghayyad told the daily that Christians in Syria are experiencing similar sufferings as the rest of the people.
Many members of Syria's Christian clergy have been supportive of Assad, a member of the minority Alawite community, because of concerns that Islamists could take power in the multi-faith country.
Around 7.5 percent of Syria's 20 million inhabitants are Christian.
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