Joint Parliamentary Committees Postpone Session over Lack of Quorum
The joint parliamentary committees that are discussing the new electoral draft law postponed on Thursday its meeting over lack of quorum.
“We will hold another meeting on Tuesday,” deputy Speaker Farid Makari told reporters at the parliament.
Makari pointed out that the session witnessed a heated debate over whether to allow military personnel to cast their votes during the upcoming 2013 parliamentary elections or not.
He told reporters that participants in the meeting failed to reach any agreement over the disputed issues.
The government approved in August a parliamentary electoral law based on proportional representation and 13 electoral districts, however, the opposition's proposal made by MPs George Adwan, Sami Gemayel and Butros Harb supports the formation of 50 small-sized districts in a winner-takes-all system, while a plan suggested by the Change and Reform bloc allows every sect to elect its own MPs under a proportional representation system with Lebanon as a single district.
The joint parliamentary committees formed recently an electoral subcommittee to study the disputed issues concerning the electoral draft law amid sharp difference among the political foes over the matter.
The committee will be headed by Makari and another nine MPs divided evenly between the March 14 alliance and the March 8 camp in addition to a lawmaker representing the Democratic Gathering bloc.
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