Berri Considers Hybrid Electoral Law as 'Best' Option
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Speaker Nabih Berri described on Saturday the hybrid electoral draft-law that combines the winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems as “the best proposal.”
He stressed that the division of parliamentary seats between the two systems makes it hard for anyone to predict the result of the elections, considering the hybrid law to have “comprehensive mysteriousness.”
Most blocs have continuously announced their rejection to the 1960 law that is based on a winner-takes-all system. It was used in the 2009 elections.
But they have made separate proposals.
Berri said in an interview published in al-Akhbar newspaper that the law also grants Christians their parliamentary seats according to their votes more than the Orthodox Gathering electoral draft law does.
The hybrid electoral law grants us “equality,” the speaker told the newspaper.
A parliamentary subcommittee tasked with discussing the country's new electoral law kicked off its first session last month with an agreement to wrap up the matter within a month.
In May 2013, the parliament voted to extend its own mandate for 17 months after the rival political parties failed to reach a deal on a new electoral law other than the one based on 50 small-sized districts in a winner-takes-all system.
Earlier this month, lawmakers also deepened the political deadlock in the country after they voted once again to delay elections and announced they would extend their mandate until 2017, which was met by a huge popular dismay.
The subcommittee is discussing several proposals, the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal, a draft-law that divides Lebanon into 50 districts based on a winner-takes-all system, a bill referred to parliament by the government and that calls for 13 districts based on proportionality, in addition to the hybrid suggestion made by Berri.
H.K.
D.A.
06 December 2014, 12:22
01
proportionality is the healthiest way for all Lebanese and for the interest of Lebanon , it give every party ,group, person its right size and everyone aginst proportionality is for an electoral law best for his interest or his party or religion
god bless democracy
ps: hope also they fix the nb of mandates so we do not see the same faces forever ma heik ya nabih (how long have you been head of parliament ) walaou ma chbi3it inte ou ghayrak
06 December 2014, 18:10
11
Why doesn't Naharnet ever discuss the Taef Accord provision that reserves half of Parliament for so-called Christians? With that as the main feature of the Lebanese constitution, it doesn't matter how you divide up the seats after that, you've already guaranteed yourselves chaos and violence. All flowing from the initial incompetence. A democracy means majority rule.
07 December 2014, 04:33
01
This unbalance gives Christians a proportionally higher representation compared to other communities. This is one reasons while there will always be Christians MP elected by non Christians.
06 December 2014, 12:37
13
A country where most leaders receive their orders from outside. This is the source of all our diseases.
06 December 2014, 12:44
14
Every time we have to elect a PM, it becomes an eternal problem. Every time we have to elect a President, it also because an eternal problem. People like Nabih Berri start to toy with one law after the other, they procrastinate, keep wasting the time of the Lebanese people as eternally and as painfully. One foreign delegation after the other comes and goes. I am now of the belief that that only partition will work for Lebanon, even a federal system is no good. There are those who wish to fight for a Sunni nation, the others for a Shiite one, and then there are people whose only desire is to live in a land of laws, freedom and prosperity. Let those who wish to die for the KSA have their mini republic, and the same goes for those who want a mini Iran, but let them leave that Lebanese citizen who wants nothing of it all, to live in his small patch, but live without all those mad people who only see in Red, Blood Red.
