Al-Rahi Gives Bkirki Committee 10 Days to Agree on Small Electoral Districts

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi gave members of the Bkirki committee 10 days to contact their leaderships and resolve their differences on an electoral draft-law proposal, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday.

The 10-day deadline was the result of a dispute on Monday between the Free Patriotic Movement on one side and the Lebanese Forces and the Phalange party on the other.

The committee was meeting under al-Rahi when Phalange MP Sami Gemayel and LF lawmaker George Adwan criticized an electoral draft-law approved by the government, including ministers loyal to FPM chief Michel Aoun.

After a dispute between Gemayel and MP Alain Aoun, Adwan intervened by saying that members of the committee - that includes the four main Christian parties in Lebanon - had agreed on adopting small districts in a winner-takes-all system.

If that was not possible, then the second option would be to adopt proportionality, Adwan said.

“We haven't agreed to the draft-law that you supported in the government,” he told Aoun, accusing him of “evading what we had agreed on in the past six months and in the presence of witnesses.”

Aoun responded by saying that the FPM ministers had no choice but to back the government's draft-law but stressed that they did not give up the principles seeking a better representation of Christians.

The patriarch then interfered by calling on the different parties to reach an agreement that would lead to a successful deal on a proposal based on small districts, An Nahar said.

The government approved last month a draft-law that divides the country into 13 medium-sized districts based on proportional representation.