Al-Rahi Meets Aoun, Urges Electoral Law Allowing 'Accountability'

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held talks Friday with President Michel Aoun at the Baabda Palace.

Al-Rahi called for “an electoral law that guarantees the value of each citizen's vote, so that they can hold their MPs accountable,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Christian parties in Lebanon have long complained that the electoral laws that were adopted after the civil war did not allow them to choose their MPs with their own votes seeing as they were tailored to fit the interests of the Muslim political forces.

The country has not organized parliamentary elections since 2009 and the legislature has since extended its own mandate twice.

While al-Mustaqbal Movement has rejected that the electoral law be fully based on the proportional representation system, arguing that Hizbullah's arms would prevent serious competition in the party's strongholds, Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat has totally rejected proportional representation, even within a hybrid law, warning that it would “marginalize” the minority Druze community.

The political parties are meanwhile discussing several formats of a so-called hybrid law that mixes proportional representation with the winner-takes-all system.