Nasrallah Urges Consensual Electoral Law, Says Not Seeking to Impose Proportional Representation
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stressed Tuesday that his party is not seeking to “impose” the proportional representation electoral system on the country, while warning that Lebanon is “on the brink of the abyss” regarding the issue of the electoral law.
“A lot of forces are approaching the electoral law as if it is 'an issue of life or death' and they are right in their approach,” said Nasrallah in a televised speech marking the “Wounded of the Resistance Day.”
“Some parties are unfortunately exploiting the electoral law file to sabotage some alliances and settle scores,” he lamented.
Nasrallah noted that throughout the past few months and weeks, there has been “an attempt to accuse Hizbullah that it is seeking to prevent Christians from electing their MPs with their own votes.”
“The other accusation is that Hizbullah does not want an electoral law that gives the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces a third of parliament and I say that these are baseless accusations,” he said.
Nasrallah noted that Hizbullah “had agreed to the Orthodox Gathering law although it would have allowed Christians to elect all their MPs.”
“It has been said that Hizbullah wants to impose full proportional representation on the Lebanese through its weapons and military might. But Hizbullah has been calling for proportional representation since it entered parliament in 1992 and its stance is based on the national interest,” Hizbullah's leader added.
“It wants the fairest and most just representation and our stance is not partisan or sectarian,” he emphasized.
“We have not brandished weapons in anyone's face to demand proportional representation and we have not organized street protests to impose proportional representation on those rejecting it. We do not want to impose proportional representation or any other electoral law on anyone in Lebanon,” Nasrallah reassured.
He pointed out that Christians and Druze in Lebanon have more concerns than Sunnis and Shiites “due to their numbers, emigration and other issues.”
“It is not possible to impose an electoral law on Christians or on Druze should they reject a certain law,” Nasrallah stressed.
He noted that Lebanon's consensual democracy system “must be applied to the electoral law.”
“We must convince each other in order to reach a settlement over the electoral law,” Nasrallah urged.
“Let us all be modest and offer concessions to rescue our country,” he added.
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