FPM Delegation Meets Jumblat, Says He Doesn't 'Flatly Reject' Proportional Representation

A Free Patriotic Movement delegation tasked with pushing for the adoption of a new electoral law held talks Wednesday in Clemenceau with Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat, after which it announced that the PSP leader is not totally opposed to the proportional representation system.

“The discussion was frank regrading the concerns, especially with an essential component that has a certain status,” MP Alain Aoun of the FPM said after the meeting, referring to Jumblat's minority Druze community.

“We tried through this discussion to reach common answers on how to mix between addressing concerns and putting an end to the current law, which we don't consider as the only guarantee or answer to those concerns,” Aoun added.

“The discussion needs follow-up and we don't have a clear or final approach regarding the solution,” the MP went on to say, noting that Jumblat and the PSP did not “flatly reject a proportional representation system that takes concerns into consideration and does not eliminate any sectarian component.”

Caretaker Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has recently warned that there is not much time left to pass a new electoral law while announcing that the ministry is ready to organize the polls under the 1960 law.

Hizbullah has repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional representation but other political parties, especially al-Mustaqbal Movement, have rejected the proposal and argued that the party's controversial arsenal of arms would prevent serious competition in regions where the Iran-backed party is influential.

Mustaqbal, the Lebanese Forces and the PSP have meanwhile proposed a hybrid electoral law that mixes the proportional representation and the winner-takes-all systems. Speaker Nabih Berri has also proposed a hybrid law.

The country has not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending its own mandate.

The 2009 polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the next elections are scheduled for May 2017.