The March 8 and 14 camps held last-minute consultations over the past few days ahead of the resumption of the electoral subcommittee meetings on Monday in order to reach a final position on the electoral law dispute, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

It said that the March 8 camp's Hizbullah, AMAL, and Free Patriotic Movement held contacts to coordinate their stances ahead of Monday's meeting.

Speaker Nabih Berri kicked off last week efforts to persuade the Mustaqbal Movement and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat to agree on a new parliamentary electoral law, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Sources following the speaker's efforts said that Berri was “adamant in his position that there can be no substitute to proportional representation” in the electoral law.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun criticized on Saturday Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat's rejection of the Orthodox Gathering parliamentary electoral law, saying that he has “done nothing to eliminate sectarianism,” reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

He wondered: “Does Jumblat want to deny the rights of 110,000 Christians residing in Aley and the Chouf regions?”

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat are expected to travel to France before the end of January, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.

It said that the two officials are scheduled to meet with French President Francois Hollande in separate talks during their upcoming visits.

Researchers and legal experts at the Civil Center for National Initiative said on Saturday that there are no obstacles in front of civil marriage in Lebanon for those who decide to remove their sects from their IDs, LBCI television reported.

“The 1936's law is more advanced and open than the ones adopted nowadays,” Change and Reform bloc MP Ghassan Moukheiber expressed in an interview with LBCI.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi stated on Saturday that the repercussions of Syria's conflict on Lebanon are “alarming”.

“The ongoing war in Syria has had tremendous consequences on its neighboring countries, particularly on Lebanon,” al-Arabi told MTV.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced on Saturday that the number of Syrians and Palestinians who have fled the neighboring war-torn country and came to Lebanon has exceeded 212,000.

“These 212,000 refugees are currently receiving aid from the Lebanese government, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations,” a statement released by the U.N. said.

The Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform (CCER) held on Saturday a sit-in near Samir Kassir memorial garden in Downtown Beirut to protest the adoption of any sectarian electoral law during the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The sit-in held under the slogan “No for Any Sectarian Electoral Law,” was held in participation of a number of civil society organizations.

Several protesters demonstrated on Saturday near the headquarters of the French UNIFIL peacekeepers in the southern village of Deir Kifa over the ongoing detention of Lebanese leftist militant Georges Abdallah.

Joseph Abdallah, the brother of former guerrilla in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Abdallah, who has spent 28 years in jail, warned that demonstrators will hold sit-ins near French institutions across Lebanese territories and will hassle all French nationals in the country.

Youth and Sports Minister Faisal Karami urged the state on Saturday to put an end to arms proliferation following an attack on his convoy in the northern city of Tripoli.

In remarks to visiting delegations, Karami played down Friday's assault that erupted after gunmen from the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh demanding the release of Islamists held in Roumieh prison clashed with his bodyguards and then tossed a grenade at the convoy, setting a four-wheeler on fire.