Hizbullah, Mustaqbal, FPM and AMAL Hold Electoral Law Meeting in Baabda

A four-party meeting was held Wednesday at the Baabda Palace to discuss the issue of the stalled electoral law.

The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil of the AMAL Movement, Free Patriotic Movement chief and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, Hizbullah MP Ali Fayyad and Prime Minister Saad Hariri's aide Nader Hariri.

“We discussed a number of formats and it has become certain that there won't be a law that eliminates any of the parties,” Nader Hariri said after the meeting.

Khalil for his part stressed that the four parties have not formed “an alliance or a front.”

“We have contacts with the other parties and it is too early to discuss a unified vision,” he added.

Fayyad also reassured that the meeting was not aimed at “eliminating anyone” or forming an alliance.

“It is only a framework for follow-up and it seeks to communicate with others,” Fayyad added, revealing that the second meeting will be held on Friday.

Hizbullah has repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional representation but other political parties, especially Mustaqbal and the Progressive Socialist Party, have rejected the proposal, arguing that Hizbullah's weapons would prevent serious competition in the Iran-backed party's strongholds.

Mustaqbal, the Lebanese Forces and the PSP had proposed a hybrid electoral law that mixes the proportional representation and the winner-takes-all systems but the PSP eventually withdrew its support for the proposal.

Speaker Nabih Berri has also proposed a hybrid law.

The country has not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending its own mandate. The 2009 polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the next elections are scheduled for May 2017.