March 14 Gears up to Confront Electoral Draft Law in Coordination with Jumblat

The March 14 opposition alliance, which has severely criticized a new electoral draft-law, is gearing up to reject it in parliament and holding intense meetings to draft a new law in coordination with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, high-ranking opposition sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily that the March 14 forces will not only work on toppling the draft-law, but will seek through small coordination committees along with centrist Jumblat to work on reaching common points that would form the nucleus of a new draft.

According to the opposition, the cabinet’s draft that is based on proportional representation and 13 districts, has shoved Lebanon into a danger zone that seeks to give stronger powers to the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance that makes up the majority of the government.

Al-Liwaa newspaper also said that the opposition is making arrangements to hold a meeting that would be attended by the PSP chief to announce a joint stance on proportionality and the districts.

It quoted a source as saying that the coordination between the two sides against the electoral draft-law could pave way to an alliance during the 2013 elections.

Despite severe criticism by the major parties that make up the March 14 alliance, including Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri and Phalange MP Sami Gemayel, the draft-law was strongly backed by the Free Patriotic Movement that is part of the government.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is an FPM official, told al-Joumhouria newspaper that proportionality “does not eliminate anyone.”

“We don’t mind in reviewing the draft-law and some parts of it such as the division of districts,” he said.

“We prefer big districts but we approved smaller ones to satisfy to a certain degree what had been agreed at in the Bkirki committee,” Bassil added.

The committee that is made up of the four major Christian parties in the country, including the FPM, has been formed by the Maronite patriarchate to make a proposal on a draft-law that guarantees the best representation of Christians.

According to al-Akhbar daily, Bassil will visit Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday to discuss with him the issue after the LF and the Phalange party criticized the draft-law for allegedly not being consistent with the decisions reached by the Bkirki committee which had agreed on a law based on small districts.