Joint Parliamentary Committees Suspend Session on Electoral Law over Lack of Quorum
The joint parliamentary committees convened on Wednesday to tackle the government-approved electoral law.
Media reports said however that the session was later suspended over a lack of quorum when opposition MPs withdrew from the meeting.
Deputy Speaker Farid Makari told reporters after the session: “Some MPs mistook the date of today's meeting with tomorrow.”
He explained that a change in dates for the parliamentary committees meeting took place in order to schedule the national dialogue session, which is set for Thursday.
Discussions over the electoral law will not be complete in one session, Makari added.
The deputy speaker told reporters that some MPs proposed during Wednesday's session increasing the number of electoral districts.
The government approved in August a new electoral law based on proportional representation and 13 districts.
Makari revealed that the joint parliamentary committees will meet again on September 27.
Speaker Nabih Berri has informed his deputy, Makari, the importance of discussing proposed draft laws “with a spirit of openness and focus on the implementation of proportionality,” media reports said.
The talks should be limited to the type of electoral system – proportionality or winner-takes-all – and the size of districts – small, medium or big - Berri reportedly told Makari, they said.
But huge disagreements between the majority and the opposition and mainly disputes between March 8 and March 14 Christian parties will likely mar the meeting of the joint parliamentary committees.
The Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun on one side and March 14 Christian forces, including MP Butros Harb, Lebanese Forces and the Phalange Party, have been trading accusations on backtracking from an agreement they had reached in Bkirki under Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.
Phalange MP Sami Gemayel told An Nahar newspaper that his party is coordinating with the LF on their joint stance.
He said the lawmakers can't discuss the proportional representation without completing the talks on the small districts, which the March 14 Christians claim were part of the agreement reached in Bkirki during discussions aimed at finding the best type of representation for Christians.
Another opposition lawmaker, Marwan Hamadeh said the opposition al-Mustaqbal movement, the Phalange, LF, and Walid Jumblat's centrist National Struggle Front have reached a common vision on an electoral law.
Sources close to al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora said the bloc's MPs consider the government's draft-law as “vengeful in the division of districts and the adoption of proportionality.”
Saniora had dealt with proportional representation as an important reform process when he was prime minister in 2005, “but Hizbullah's control of Lebanon's political life through its arms proved that there is no value to such reform,” they told An Nahar.
Al-Mustaqbal discussed the issue with its allies in the opposition and agreed to be flexible on the study of all proposals that would bring the country out of the control of arms, the sources said.
Berri, who is a major figure in the March 8 majority coalition, has asked the members of his Development and Liberation bloc to call for the adoption of Lebanon as a single electoral district or back the government’s draft-law, the reports said.
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