BEIRUT: A final agreement on a new electoral law is yet to materialize as the country’s political parties scramble to iron out wrinkles, sources told The Daily Star Wednesday. Sources close to the negotiations said the upcoming few days will see a flurry of activity by officials in order to agree on a final version of the electoral law to govern the country’s parliamentary elections.

The current draft law under discussion is based on proportional representation following an agreement between President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The agreement calls for the adoption of a proportional voting system dividing Lebanon into 15 districts.

But new hurdles have reportedly emerged, postponing a final agreement. “There are hurdles and there is a process to overcome them,” the sources said. “This needs to be resolved within the next 48 hours for the Cabinet to endorse the law and then Parliament.”

After chairing a Cabinet session Wednesday, Hariri left for Saudi Arabia to perform the umrah pilgrimage to Mecca. However, he is expected to return to continue negotiations.

A final ratification of the new draft electoral law has become all the more urgent as Parliament’s mandate expires on June 20.

Issues such as the percentage each candidate needs to win an electoral seat in any district, the mechanism of a preferential vote, the duration of a technical extension of Parliament’s term, vote tallying procedures and granting Lebanese expatriates six parliamentary seats as demanded by the Free Patriotic Movement could still block the deal.

Aoun, according to a statement from the president’s office, followed up Wednesday on the efforts that are being made to agree on the final draft law. The president, the statement added, “specified his meetings and calls for this issue and that’s with the aim of hastening the finalization of the draft law in order to present it to the Cabinet and then refer it to Parliament.”

He stressed the need to bring the views of different parties together and to overcome barriers so that the new law reflects the “true representation to the constituents of the Lebanese society.”

As a vote law has not been agreed upon, the sources pointed out that Berri might resort to postponing Monday’s legislative session if no agreement is made before then. Hariri could still call a special Cabinet session before Monday to endorse a proposal and send it to Parliament.

During his weekly meeting with lawmakers Wednesday, the speaker stressed the need to quickly agree on an electoral law. He said that it is a must to agree on a draft, endorse it and hold a parliamentary session with it as the only agenda item.

Berri was quoted by the lawmakers as saying that the region was witnessing unprecedented developments “which forces on all of those in Lebanon to have a degree of national responsibility to fortify Lebanon and achieve internal matters with the electoral law being at the forefront.”

A critical meeting was held Tuesday night at Hariri’s Downtown Beirut residence to iron out differences that have emerged after a series of demands were put forward by FPM leader Gebran Bassil.

The meeting was attended by Hussein Khalil, a senior aide to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah; Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a top political aide to Berri; Bassil; Lebanese Forces’ deputy chief MP George Adwan; and Nader Hariri, the prime minister’s chief of staff.

Bassil’s demands have reportedly focused on specifying six parliamentary seats for members of the diaspora, but without adding to the 128 existing parliamentary seats. Media reports said that the FPM leader wants to give military personnel the right to vote, move Christian seats and create a preferential vote on sectarian basis.

Berri had reportedly opposed Bassil’s raising of new demands at the eleventh hour to link the vote law deal to a political agreement confirming parity between Muslims and Christians in a constitutional text and the creation of a senate as stipulated by the 1989 Taif Accord.

Although Wednesday’s Cabinet session didn’t touch on the electoral law saga, Hariri told the minsters that most barriers had been removed.

“The serious obstacles have been overcome and some details are being reviewed,” Hariri said, according to Information Minister Melhem Riachi, who spoke to reporters after the session.

But positions on the electoral law were mixed Wednesday before the Cabinet met. Prior to heading into the session, Nader Hariri said that there were still two sticking points in the vote law: the eligibility of candidates to run and the diaspora vote.

Riachi, who belongs to the LF, sounded optimist about a vote law.

Before heading into the session he said that the atmosphere was positive. But, he said, “The devil is in the details.”

“We want a preferential vote based on an electoral constituency.”