BEIRUT: Standing their ground on the presidential election impasse and a new voting system, rival political leaders Wednesday shifted their attention to less important topics: the creation of a senate and administrative decentralization in a seemingly desperate attempt to achieve something before the three-day national dialogue break up Thursday. The leaders, mainly from the opposing March 8 and March 14 camps and independent politicians, met on the second day of national dialogue with their roughly three-hour talks centering on administrative decentralization and the establishment of a senate, two items stipulated in the 1989 Taif Accord that ended the 1975-90 Civil War.

“The talks on the creation of a senate and administrative decentralization are an attempt to explore the possibility of making a breakthrough in the presidential election and a new electoral law crisis,” former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is representing the parliamentary Future bloc at national dialogue, told The Daily Star Wednesday night. “We are trying to get something out of the box but under the Constitution,” he said.

Asked why no progress had been made in either the presidential election crisis or a new voting system in two days of national dialogue sessions that kicked off at Speaker Nabih Berri’s Ain al-Tineh residence Tuesday, Siniora, the head of the Future bloc, said: “It’s because the [rival] parties are refusing to budge on their intractable positions.”

Administrative decentralization is among topics on the dialogue agenda which is topped by the election of a president, a new electoral law and the shape of a new government.

Several dialogue members said that the talks on the creation of a senate were entirely linked to a vote system and the election of a president.

Participants described Wednesday’s session as the “most important and most successful dialogue round,” while stressing the need for “a serious action to implement the remaining reform provisions in the Taif Accord.”

Addressing the leaders, Berri emphasized that priority should be given to the election of a president before implementing anything that might be reached at national dialogue. “Tomorrow’s session will resume discussions on a parliamentary election law and drawing up its broad lines,” Berri said.

The speaker was also quoted as expressing optimism about a solution to the presidential crisis, saying he expected a new president to be elected before the end of the year. Lebanon has been left without a head of state since former President Michel Sleiman’s six-year tenure ended in May 2014. Parliament has since been unable to convene due to a lack of quorum to choose a successor. A new Parliament session to elect a president is set for Aug. 8.

The presidential vacuum, now in its third year, has paralyzed Parliament legislation and threatened to cripple the government’s work.

Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel, praised the talks on administrative decentralization, but stressed that any reforms to the country’s political system being discussed by the leaders could not be implemented in the absence of a president.

“An important achievement was made today as there were serious talks over administrative decentralization and this file was referred to Parliament for discussion,” Gemayel said after the session. “This allows for Lebanese regions to look after themselves after the central state failed to do so.”

Gemayel has long called for administrative decentralization to be adopted in Lebanon, especially following the eight-month trash crisis which highlighted the government’s ineptitude manage even basic issues.

Gemayel, however, sounded pessimistic about ending the presidential vacuum soon. “A president must not be appointed or agreed on, but instead elected by voting in Parliament as stipulated by the Constitution,” he said.

Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil described the meeting as “one of the most important dialogue sessions” in the more than 30 held so far.

“Talks on a new electoral law will start tomorrow and we hope to start implementing everything agreed upon at the meetings after the dialogue ends,” Khalil, a top political aide to Berri, told reporters.

He added that there is a chance a new electoral law based completely on proportional representation could be adopted if rivals agree on a senate.

“Establishing a senate and outlining its prerogatives and passing a new vote law on the basis that there is a senate would be a matter of true [political] reform that would put the country on a new track,” Khalil said.

Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad said discussions were “deep, serious and calm,” adding that they opened the door to look into ways to improve the country’s political system in accordance with the Taif Accord.

“Tomorrow we will discuss the senate and what its role and prerogatives would be,” Fayyad told reporters after the session.

“As stressed in previous sessions, any agreement on these topics [a senate, an electoral law and an administrative decentralization law] should be preceded by the election of a president,” he said.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan sounded optimistic after the session. “The meeting was positive, and if talks continue in this manner then things will be heading for the better,” he said.

MP Walid Jumblatt was absent from the meeting and was represented by former minister Ghazi Aridi, while MP Michel Aoun was represented by his son-in-law, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

The Lebanese Forces is the only party that has been boycotting national dialogue since it was launched last year, dismissing it as “a waste of time.”

The dialogue sessions are being held amid low expectations that the feuding March 8 and March 14 parties, which have failed for more than two years to elect a president and endorse an electoral law, would be able to make any headway on these two contentious issues.

Berri was reported to be working to promote “a full-package deal” as a way out of the protracted political crisis that has left the country without a president and thrown the executive and legislative branches of power into disarray. The deal includes the presidency, an electoral law, the premiership and the makeup of a new Cabinet.