Hussein Dakroub| The
Daily Star BEIRUT: A special Cabinet session set for next week promises to be
crucial in ongoing efforts to reach consensus on a new electoral law to govern the upcoming
parliamentary elections, official sources said Friday.
Prime Minister Saad
Hariri Friday boosted chances of reaching a deal over a new vote law by indicating that his Future
Movement was ready to accept a hybrid vote system, or even an electoral law based on full
proportional representation, as demanded by Hezbollah and the Amal Movement. He said the Cabinet
would send soon a new draft electoral law to Parliament for final
ratification.
Hariri has called for a special Cabinet session at 11 a.m.
Monday at Baabda Palace to be chaired by President Michel Aoun to discuss a new voting system to
replace the disputed 1960 winner-take-all formula.
“The Cabinet session is
devoted to exploring and reaching consensus on a new electoral law. If no consensus is reached
during Monday’s session, another session will be held ahead of the Easter holiday,” an official
source at Baabda Palace told The Daily Star.
The source said that following
Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil’s return from a trip to Australia Friday, behind-the-scene
consultations between the Free Patriotic Movement, the Future Movement, the Amal Movement and
Hezbollah would be stepped up to reach an agreement on a new voting
system.
A Hezbollah delegation will meet Aoun at the weekend to present him
with a proportional vote proposal aimed at breaking the monthslong deadlock over a new electoral law
to govern the upcoming parliamentary elections, a source told The Daily
Star.
The Hezbollah move is a further indication that the party, which is
allied with the FPM, has rejected Bassil’s latest hybrid vote law proposal that had already been
spurned by the Amal Movement, MP Walid Jumblatt’s bloc and the Marada Movement. Bassil’s proposal
calls for electing half of Parliament’s 128 members under a majoritarian system and the other half
under a proportional formula in different districts. Only the Lebanese Forces, the FPM’s key ally,
has supported Bassil’s proposal.
Rivals’ agreement on a new vote law is
deemed essential before Parliament can meet to approve what Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk and
other officials called a “technical” extension of Parliament’s term, which expires on June 20, to
allow for the implementation of the new law.
Parliamentary elections were
originally scheduled to take place between May 21 and June 21, but the continued deadlock over a
vote law would lead a delay of the polls.
“I stress our responsibility as a
Cabinet to reach a new electoral law and spare the country extension [of Parliament’s term] or the
risks of [parliamentary] vacuum,” Hariri said in a speech in Parliament Friday night, responding to
lawmakers’ comments at the end of two-day sessions to quiz the government over its performance. “We
will return to Parliament within a short period to discuss a draft [electoral] law that gains the
consensus of all lawmakers, God willing,” he said.
Noting that all rival
political factions are eager to reach a new electoral law, Hariri said: “We want a [vote] law that
allays the concerns of [minorities’] representation ... We are all minorities and we want to protect
each other ... We will continue our work over an electoral law because I know that everyone wants a
new law. We want a new law, but what’s more important is that we want consensus over this
law.”
Hariri’s remarks appear to discount the possibility of voting either
in Cabinet or in Parliament on a new vote law proposal to prevent divisions. Former Minister Wael
Abu Faour from Jumblatt’s bloc warned during Thursday’s Parliament session against voting on an
electoral law, while stressing the need for consensus. Speaker Nabih Berri has also warned that
voting on a raft of draft electoral laws in Parliament would spark “a civil war” in the country.In
his speech, Hariri also promised to send to Parliament soon the 2017 draft state budget that was
endorsed by the Cabinet last week for final ratification by lawmakers for the first time in 12
years. He said that the Cabinet was determined to approve the public sector’s salary hike bill after
the bill had been endorsed by joint parliamentary committees.
Hariri
reiterated the government’s resolve to fight corruption in the public administration by all means
and improve public sector productivity. “Our decision is to boost national unity, prevent divisions
and work for Lebanon’s interest,” he said.
Hariri signaled his acceptance
of a fully proportional vote law, in his latest gesture aimed at breaking the impasse over a new
electoral system. “We were against proportionality at one of the stages. But we were open to
proportionality and a hybrid law,” Hariri told reporters outside Parliament. “Now what is being
proposed is full proportionality. We have no problem with this.”
“We have
reached positive stages. I think we are capable of reaching a [vote] law,” he said. “We will discuss
an electoral law Monday and we will seek to reach a solution. Everyone is keen on this matter. We
support a law that ensures just representation.”
In their speeches during
the parliamentary sessions in the past two days to question the Cabinet over its performance,
lawmakers from various blocs highlighted the urgency to agree on a new electoral law, fight
corruption while warning of the country falling into parliamentary
vacuum.
MP Boutros Harb, an outspoken critic of the Cabinet, decried all
electoral law proposals. “We are facing a crisis of approving a new electoral law that achieves true
and effective popular representation,” Harb said. “What is being proposed are not electoral draft
laws that achieve true representation, but projects aimed at eliminating political
diversity.”
Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel, whose party is not
represented in the Cabinet, said: “The Cabinet might gain Parliament’s confidence but it will not
gain our confidence and the Lebanese people’s confidence.”
Gemayel
criticized Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil’s electricity reform plan for renting power barges
“instead of building power plants.”
Lebanon already has two ships producing
370 MW. They are owned by the Turkish company Karadeniz Powership Orhan. Abi Khalil wants to lease
two additional power barges to give the Energy Ministry and Electricite du Liban more time to build
new power plants that have the capacity to provide all of Lebanon with 24 hours of electricity in
the future.
LF MP George Adwan criticized appointments in public posts
that, he said, were not based on merit and integrity. “We hope this matter will not be repeated,” he
added. He called for measures to curb corruption and the squandering of public
money.
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