Berri 'Very Upset' with Dispute at End of Subcommittee Meetings as He Calls Joint Parliamentary Committees to Session
Speaker Nabih Berri emphasized the need to “rectify” the situation at the parliamentary subcommittee given the dispute that emerged at the end of its meetings earlier this week, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.
He told the daily that he is “very upset” with the dispute the erupted between Free Patriotic Movement MP Alain Aoun and Mustaqbal bloc MP Ahmed Fatfat.
Despite the dispute, the speaker is keen on persuading the various political factions to adopt the hybrid electoral draft law that combined the winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems.
On Saturday, he called the called the joint parliamentary committees to a session on Wednesday to study the electoral law and subcommittee report on the matter.
Meanwhile, head of the subcommittee MP Robert Ghanem told An Nahar that the meeting of the joint parliamentary committee will be held as scheduled on Tuesday despite Wednesday's dispute at the end of the subcommittee meeting.
He said that it was “unfortunate” that one political faction tried to impose its preferred electoral law, the Orthodox Gathering proposal, over all others, “which created a crisis.”
“An agreement had been reached over the hybrid draft law,” he revealed.
The subcommittee concluded on Wednesday its series of meetings that it held over the past two weeks with the representatives of the rival March 8 and 14 camp failing in reaching an agreement over an electoral law.
A strong verbal dispute broke out after the last subcommittee meeting between Fatfat and Aoun, with the Mustaqbal representative accusing the latter of failing to voice his position over any of the proposals in order to obstruct any agreement other than one on the Orthodox proposal.
Aoun later said: “The Mustaqbal Movement is used to covering the truth and its MPs' reaction is nothing but a reflection of their worries about agreeing on a law that guarantees Christians' rights”.
The subcommittee had initially met to discuss several draft laws including a bill proposed by the government, a March 14 draft law and the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal.
The government's bill adopted in August calls for dividing Lebanon into 13 districts based on a proportional representation system while the draft-law proposed by March 14 Christian MPs advocates 50 small districts based on a winner-takes-all system.
The Orthodox proposal which has garnered the support of the four major Christian parties – the Phalange and the Lebanese Forces from the opposition, and their rivals form the March 8 majority the Free Patriotic Movement and the Marada - was severely criticized by the opposition Mustaqbal Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party of centrist MP Walid Jumblat and independent Christian personalities, as well as President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati.
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