Hizbullah Reportedly Trying to Sway Berri, Jumblat on 'Qualification Electoral System'

Hizbullah is exerting efforts to convince Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat of the so-called qualification electoral system that has been proposed by Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, a media report said on Wednesday.

March 8 sources also noted in remarks to al-Akhbar newspaper that “Hizbullah cannot take part in a parliamentary session that passes an electoral law that does not enjoy the consent of Berri and Jumblat.”

Jumblat had on Tuesday tweeted that “the sectarian qualification system would undermine national unity” and would also harm al-Mustaqbal Movement.

Jumblat's tweet came after a “bad” meeting between a PSP delegation and Mustaqbal leader PM Saad Hariri, al-Akhbar quoted sources informed on the meeting as saying.

“The PSP is dismayed by Mustaqbal's behavior in the electoral law negotiations and by its non-opposition to the qualification system,” the daily quoted informed sources as saying.

In the first round of the system proposed by Bassil, voting takes place in the current 26 districts and voters are not allowed to vote for candidates from other sects. Two candidates for each sectarian seat qualify for the second round during which voting would take place in 10 newly-defined electoral districts and according to a non-sectarian proportional representation polling system.