Berri to Revive Parliamentary Subcommittee for 'Intense' Talks on New Vote Law
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Speaker Nabih Berri revealed on Wednesday that he would call for a parliamentary subcommittee to resume its meetings to agree on a new electoral law.
Several lawmakers who visited Berri during his weekly meetings said that the speaker had promised them to revive the subcommittee as “soon as possible” to find an alternative to the 1960 law within a certain timeframe.
He promised “intense” talks by subcommittee members to reach consensus on the new vote system.
The subcommittee's failure to agree on an electoral law was the main reason that led to the extension of parliament's four-year mandate.
The lawmakers extended their term for 17 months, pushing the legislative elections to November 2014.
The extension law becomes valid after midnight Thursday, when parliament’s current term expires.
The 10-member Constitutional Council, which had received petitions from President Michel Suleiman and the Change and Reform bloc, has failed to rule on the challenges over the boycott of three of its judges – two Shiites and one Druze.
The Shiite judges have been politically influenced by Berri and Hizbullah while the Druze member has boycotted the council meetings after the interference of Jumblat.
Both Berri and Jumblat have said it was not possible to hold the elections this year amid the deadly security incidents shaking the country.
Berri told the lawmakers on Wednesday that he would take more active steps towards helping Premier-designate Tammam Salam in forming the new government after the extension controversy comes to an end on Friday, the date the constitutional council is set to hold its last meeting to announce its failure to issue the ruling on the law.
The speaker expressed his concern over the efforts to "ignite strife," calling for "united measures to confront plots threatening the country."
19 June 2013, 15:29
02
What other country changes its Parliamentary election laws every time there is an election? In the US, we redistrict every 10 years but that is under the rules of the Constitution and to insure the one-man, one-vote rule with growing and shifting populations from one state or one Congressional District to another.
Lebanon has no one man, one vote law; it has no one man district. It has an excuse not to hold an election, namely that its political class doesn't like the EXISTING election law, the 1960 law. Its not as if there is no law to govern the 2013 elections, it is that the political class does not like it and so they decided to cancel elections.
19 June 2013, 15:32
02
So we have a Lebanese Parliament that does not follow the laws that it creates. We have a political party that decides when and where to take the country into war, without reference to the Lebanese Council of Ministers, much less the Minister of Defense, the Prime Minister or the Army Chief of Staff.
Instead we have Berri who is afraid he will lose his Speakers Chair if the election is conducted by existing law and he is on the losing side. We have Hassan Nasrallah, who is not in the government, deciding to join a civil war in a neigbhboring state, because his power base demands that he protect his weapons transit point. Those weapons by the way, do not come to the LAF and are distributed to his political party, but straight to the party from a foreign government, Iran, who says it recognizes the Lebanese Republic.
19 June 2013, 15:35
02
Is it no wonder that the rest of the world does not deal with the Lebanese Government seriously. The rest of the world deals with reality. The institutions of the Lebanese government are mirages. The authority of the Lebanese elected officials, illusory. Lebanon remains as it was when Basher Gemayel was killed in 1982. It was then and it is now a farm. Gemayel's purpose was to turn that farm into a country with a Constitution, democratic institutions and the rule of law. When he fell, so did his flag, and no one has yet to come and pick up his cause.
19 June 2013, 16:24
04
Beiruti. We had two great statesmen capable of creating a strong united country of institutions where the rule of law applies on everybody.
The first one, Bachir Gemayel was killed by Assad in 82
The second one, Rafic Hariri was killed by Assad in 05
Anyone else who will try to create a country of institutions in Lebanon will be killed by Assad .
Assads have been actively working with all their might to prevent Lebanon's rise.
I hope Assad's stalinist regime rots in hell.
19 June 2013, 15:38
02
Notice that picture of Berri at the head of the column. The coy grin and how he looks out of the tops of his eyes. I'll bet Mrs. Berri gets that same look right before he does to her what he is about to do to the 2013 elections.
19 June 2013, 16:33
03
All you got to do these days to ensure your position as an MP or Speaker is to have armed thugs (ortet za3ran) that could threaten the peace anytime you choose. Then you can get away with violating alll constitutional rules and laws. Berri is a shinning example of such tactics.
19 June 2013, 18:40
02
@Lebanon_first. Rafiq Hariri came to the cause that Basher Gemayel championed, but he came late. Hariri thought that he could bring Lebanon back economically and then the political reforms would follow as the players would not want to lose the economic gains by continuing to play the political games. He cooperated with Syria, as a fact on the ground, to work his economic recovery plans.
I among others warned him against this. That the order of things was to repair the political system first, otherwise, the economic recovery would be built on sand. But he went his way, and now see what has happened.
In 2004 he saw the light and saw that Lebanon had to be free of Syria if it were to come back economically. When he showed he wanted to be independent, he made it to the Syrian hit list and was killed.
19 June 2013, 22:11
03
You are with Shia za3ran but not with Sunni za3ran. You are with welayat elfaqih but not with the Umma. You are so subjectively objective
20 June 2013, 02:55
02
You exposed your hypocrisy once again. Only a fellow snake would support a snake like berri.
20 June 2013, 07:13
01
Berri is going to bring the subcommittee back from the dead... He promised “intense” talks, what where they doing the last time around sleeping?
