Civil Society Marches in Beirut to Demand New and Fair Electoral Law

The “Parliament for All Coalition” and a number of political and syndical activists and civil society groups staged a march in Beirut on Sunday to press authorities to pass a new and “fair” electoral law.

The demonstrators marched from outside the Interior Ministry in Sanayeh to the Riad al-Solh Square in downtown Beirut.

Calling for a law based on proportional representation and large electoral districts, the activists said the electoral law “should not be a distribution of shares among corrupt officials who use sectarian incitement to stay in power.”

“Our march today is aimed at pushing for the approval of a new electoral law that allows the election of competent and young candidates and prevents the repeated replication of the parliament,” a spokeswoman for the demonstrators said in Riad al-Solh.

“It is the starting point of our protests that are aimed at rejecting the secret collusion of the parties represented in power which are seeking to devise an electoral law through which they would replicate themselves, split the government and state institutions, and cover up for their deals and siphoning of public funds,” she added.

The coalition also noted that “some political parties are trying to use proportional representation as a pressure and intimidation card against other parties without ever being serious about endorsing this demand.”

“Whereas we have been demanding proportional representation in large electorates seeing as it is the electoral system that represents the Lebanese correctly and accurately,” the coalition added.

It also called for a number of electoral reforms that would ensure more transparent elections.

Speaker Nabih Berri and Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq have warned that the country is likely headed to parliamentary elections under the controversial 1960 electoral law due to the parties' failure to agree on a new law.

Hizbullah has repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional representation but other political parties, especially al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party, have rejected the proposal, arguing that Hizbullah's weapons would prevent serious competition in the Iran-backed party's strongholds.

Mustaqbal, the Lebanese Forces and the PSP have meanwhile proposed a hybrid electoral law that mixes the proportional representation and the winner-takes-all systems. Berri has also proposed a hybrid law.

The country has not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending its own mandate.

The 2009 polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the next elections are scheduled for May 2017.