Lebanon Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that he will call on ministers during Monday’s cabinet session to resume discussions on his electoral law proposal based on proportional representation.
“The council of ministers will resume discussions from the point where they had stopped i.e. the chapter related to specifying the electoral districts. If the talks do not finish today the council will probably continue discussions [on Tuesday],” Charbel told Al-Akhbar newspaper.
As for Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt’s stance on proportionality, Charbel told the daily that the PSP leader “refused proportionality and there is no communication with him to know the stance which his ministers will embrace.”
Lebanese parties are debating the electoral law for the upcoming 2013 parliamentary elections after the parliament agreed on a law based on proportional representation.
However, some parties, including the PSP, rejected the proposed law and called for adopting the 2009 electoral law, which is based on simple majority representation.
Charbel added that “the Bkirki follow-up committee expressed its position on proportionality, but as for the districts there are some groups who have reservations.”
“Anyway, the draft-law will be sent to the parliament and every group can voice its acceptance or objection.”
The Bkirki committee is tasked with following up on Lebanon’s Christian leaders’ Bkirki meeting on the electoral law.
On December 16, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai chaired a meeting between leading Maronite politicians in the country to discuss several issues, including the drafting of an electoral law ahead of the 2013 parliamentary elections.
In a separate interview with Al-Liwaa newspaper, Charbel commented on the security situation, saying that “if it weren’t for President Michel Suleiman’s wisdom, the security status quo would have been worse.”
Now Lebanon
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.