Al-Ferzli Meets MP Gemayel, Says There is More Conviction that Orthodox Plan is Best Option
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Former Deputy Speaker Elie al-Ferzli said a meeting he held with Phalange MP Sami Gemayel on Wednesday enhanced the strong belief that the Orthodox Gathering proposal is the best option for a new electoral law.
Following the 90 minutes of talks with Gemayel in Bikfaya, al-Ferzli said: “There is more conviction after today's meeting that the Orthodox (proposal) is the best option.”
He hoped however that rival lawmakers would reach consensus on an alternative that appeases all sides and guarantees the best representation for all the Lebanese and mainly Christians.
“Until now and around than five days before the national assembly no one suggested a law that guarantees the rights of Christians, respects article 24 of the constitution and stops the ongoing assaults on the constitutional rights of Christians since 1991,” said al-Ferzli, who is the architect of the Orthodox proposal.
The plan considers Lebanon a single electoral district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.
The former deputy speaker, who has been tasked by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to discuss with Christian officials the electoral law, said he talked with Gemayel about the importance of coming up with a plan that “reproduces political life in Lebanon.”
His comments came as Speaker Nabih Berri called on lawmakers for a parliamentary session on May 15.
He reiterated during his weekly meeting with lawmakers that he would call for a vote on the Orthodox proposal during the session for being the only plan that was approved by the joint parliamentary committees unless an agreement is reached on an alternative plan before that date.
Wednesday's meeting with Gemayel was held two days after similar talks between Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and caretaker energy minister Jebran Bassil, who is a Free Patriotic Movement official.
The meeting at Geagea’s residence in Maarab was attended by al-Ferzli and LF MPs George Adwan and Elie Kairouz.
08 May 2013, 16:18
03
Ferzle, the unreconstructed Assad-sympathizer is the father of this Orthodox Gathering Plan whose clear purpose is to confessionally polarize the Lebanese people and their government thus inducing a protracted comatose State. As Assad and Hezbollah wish. He is selling this under his slogan to stop "the ongoing assaults on the constitutional rights of Christians since 1991". Where in the constitution are rights parsed out according to confessional identification?
08 May 2013, 16:25
03
If he means that the 64 Christian deputies are not elected by 100% Christian Constituencies, first, it has never been the case that in Lebanon's confessional system, that only co-confessionalists vote for their confessional representatives. There has always been a mix. How does Aoun win in Jezzine without Hezbollah support for his candidates among the Shiites? How do LF candidates in Aley or Shouf win without Druze voters? It makes the politics and politicians interdependent one on the other so that consensus is possible.
08 May 2013, 16:26
04
Second, the insistence on only Christian voters voting for Christian deputies will eventually work against the Christians, not make them stronger. The Christians do not make up 50% of the electorate, yet, they are guaranteed 50% of the seats in a unicameral parliament. Should the Moslems one day say that this needs correcting, who is to stop them. Right now the 50% formula is guaranteed by one external party, namely the KSA at the insistence of Saad Hariri who keeps Taif as a tesiment to his father Rafiq Hariri who was the father of Taif.
How odd that Aoun, who detests Hariri would insist on his "rights" which were created and have endured because of Hariri.
08 May 2013, 16:29
03
The Taif Formula is not the best to guarantee Christian Rights, which are more and more seen as minority rights. A better system is to move to a bi-cameral legislative body where Majority Rights are reflected in in one chamber, and the Taif Formula preserved and manifested in the other where Minority Rights are preserved. Lebanon needs a Senate where minority rights can be protected, and the people of Lebanon, where ever the majority may lie, should be free to elect whomever they wish to the Chamber of Deputies.
08 May 2013, 16:34
40
Lebanon must be the rock against this wave of salafism n hatred, Christianity has always been the religion of forgiveness n loving our enemies...All what is happening around us from Egypt to Iraq n more will break on the rocks of Lebanon under the feet of our holly lady Harissa.
