Jumblat Says Electoral Law Must 'Bolster Partnership', Not 'Create Tensions'
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed Wednesday that any new electoral law should “bolster partnership, reconciliation and openness.”
“We discussed several issues and the most important thing is to overcome this dilemma and reach an electoral law that bolsters partnership, reconciliation and openness and does not create tensions, and this is everyone's inclination,” said Jumblat after talks with Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail.
“In Mount Lebanon, the issue is not about the number of MPs for the Democratic Gathering... The issue is to emphasize on this partnership with the Lebanese Forces, Free Patriotic Movement, Kataeb Party, Hizbullah, AMAL Movement, Jamaa Islamiya and everyone,” added Jumblat.
Asked whether he might accept an electoral law fully based on the proportional representation system, Jumblat said his recent call for “an amended version of the 1960 law” was an indication that he would accept a so-called “hybrid” law that mixes proportional representation with the winner-takes-all system.
The country has not organized parliamentary elections since 2009 and the legislature has since extended its own mandate twice.
While Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement has rejected that the electoral law be fully based on proportional representation, arguing that Hizbullah's arms would prevent serious competition in the party's strongholds, Jumblat had totally rejected proportional representation -- even within a hybrid law -- warning that it would “marginalize” his minority Druze community.
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