Geagea Hasn't Lost Hope on Vote Law Consensus

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said Thursday that he hasn't lost hope on the ability of rival lawmakers to reach consensus on an electoral draft-law ahead of this year's parliamentary polls.

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper, Geagea said: “The efforts to find consensus (among the different factions) should continue no matter what.”

“I am not pessimistic and I haven't lost hope,” he added.

In similar remarks, LF MP George Adwan told An Nahar that his parliamentary bloc was “exerting strong efforts to reach consensus on an electoral draft-law that serves stability and comforts all Lebanese factions.”

“We are holding intense consultations in that regard,” he said, while stressing that the elections should be held on time.

However, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has repeatedly warned that the polls would be postponed if the parliament gives the green light to the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal that divides Lebanon into a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.

The proposal was approved by the joint parliamentary committees on Tuesday despite the objection of the opposition al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front, and March 14 opposition’s Christian independent MPs.

The LF voted in favor of the proposal, drawing the ire of its allies in al-Mustaqbal.

But Adwan stressed that the March 14 alliance will not collapse over the differences between its members on the vote law.

Speaker Nabih Berri has announced that he was giving the rival MPs more time to reach consensus on another draft-law ahead of calling for a parliamentary session.

Contacts between the opposition's officials intensified on Wednesday when al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri held lengthy phone conversations with Geagea and Amin Gemayel, whose Phalange party also voted for the adoption of the Orthodox proposal in the parliamentary committees meeting.

Sources close to Hariri told An Nahar that the former prime minister “expressed in the phone calls his viewpoint on the LF and Phalange bloc's approval of the proposal.”

A phone conversation was also held between Gemayel and Geagea on Wednesday.