MP Aoun: Current Political Tension Doesn't Allow Breakthrough on Electoral Law
MP Alain Aoun of the Change and Reform bloc announced Sunday that “the level of political tension that we have reached does not allow a breakthrough” in the electoral law crisis.
“The atmosphere must be pacified and the previous period of negotiations must be reevaluated,” Aoun added in an interview on MTV, noting that “the current atmosphere of tensions does not allow any serious discussion among the parties.”
“We are open to all electoral ideas,” Aoun said, pointing out that Speaker Nabih Berri's latest proposal is “good, advanced and remarkable in terms of preserving equal power-sharing (between Christians and Muslims) and amending the constitution.”
“But it has been rejected by the Democratic Gathering,” Aoun added.
“We in the Free Patriotic Movement accept Berri's proposal in principle and we are ready to discuss it,” the MP went on to say.
Turning to the proportional representation electoral system, Aoun said “proportional representation is excellent, the best and a guarantee for political diversity.”
“But in Lebanon it would turn into a control for one sect over another if voters keep exclusively voting for their sectarian groups,” he warned.
Moreover, Aoun stressed that “the FPM's approach on the electoral law is not based on the distribution of political shares, or else it would have accepted the current law without all this fuss and wrangling.”
“The engines have been turned off and we are in 'a state of electoral sleep until the prince wakes up the sleeping princess with a magical kiss', which means the suggestion of an electoral law that cannot be refused,” the lawmaker added.
“We will not back down from what we have achieved on the national and Christian levels and we do not want to eradicate pluralism in the country,” Aoun underlined.
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