Report: Electoral Law Talks Making Headway



Another “four-party” meeting was held in the evening on Friday at the Foreign Ministry where discussions about the electoral law resumed and focused on the “new ideas” that were suggested during Wednesday's gathering between the same parties, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday.

The four-party meeting gathered Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, Speaker Nabih Berri's aide Ali Hassan Khalil, Hizbullah secretary-general's assistant Hussein al-Khalil and Prime Minister Saad Hariri's adviser Nader Hariri.

“Discussions about the law have made progress leaving some details that need to be studied before the final agreement that will be possibly reached next week,” said the daily.

It also said that the conferees have managed to cross beyond what the Free Patriotic Movement labels as “political guarantees” of creating a senate and issues related to the vote counting mechanisms, in order to agree on an electoral law.

Bassil told al-Akhbar in a telephone conversation that “Lebanon is about to make an electoral accomplishment for Lebanese expats,” pointing out that the representation of expats was one of the “FPM's and the Foreign Ministry's reformist demands.”

For his part, FPM MP Alain Aoun stressed that Bassil's demand that any candidate for the parliamentary elections should get at least 40% of votes from their own sect to become eligible to win a seat “will not obstruct an agreement on a new law.”

“Several ideas were suggested. Political forces have taken their time to discuss them. There is a tendency to approve the law in the next few days,” he added.

The country's main political parties have recently agreed that the new electoral law should be fully based on proportional representation and 15 electoral districts but they are still wrangling over the electoral system's mechanisms and technicalities, especially those related to the representation of sects.

Lebanon has not organized parliamentary elections since 2009 and the legislature has since extended its own term twice. The second extended term will expire on June 20.