BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Thursday he would work to drum up support for a draft election law that would divide Lebanon into small districts based on a winner-takes-all system, arguing that it would provide fair representation for Christians.
 
He also lashed out at Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, and questioned the FPM’s call to adopt a draft election law proposed by the Orthodox Gathering, under which every sect would elect its own MPs.
 
“The draft electoral law based on small districts is the best election draft law as it provides fairer representation than the draft law referred by the Cabinet to Parliament,” Geagea told a news conference at his Maarab residence. “We are seeking to guarantee the higher number of votes in Parliament for the draft law based on small districts.”
 
The Bkirki committee, under the patronage of Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, prepared the draft law, which would divide Lebanon into 61 small districts.
 
Geagea said that of the 61 districts – each having one, two or three seats – there would be no room for electoral steamrollers, wherein a strong list with several members having at least 51 percent of the vote in a large district would allow no other rival lists to win seats.
 
In August, the Cabinet approved a draft election law that would divide Lebanon into 13 medium-sized districts under a system based on proportional representation.
 
That proposal was opposed by ministers from Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party. It was also rejected by opposition leader former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the Kataeb party and the LF, which argued that proportional representation was designed to serve the interests of Hezbollah.
 
The FPM defended the draft law, saying it provides the fairest representation for Christians.
 
Aoun said in August that given the wide rejection of proportional representation, it would be “normal” to go back to the Orthodox Gathering proposal which was rejected by many Lebanese groups that argued it would promote sectarianism.
 
Geagea slammed Aoun’s stance, saying that his bloc had rejected the Orthodox Gathering’s proposal.
 
“We were the first group who took part in the committee that studied this draft law and we remind Aoun that MP Alain Aoun was appointed by him [in the committee] ... and we saw that everyone [in the committee] rejected the draft law, including Aoun’s allies,” said Geagea.
 
Geagea reiterated his rejection of the draft election law prepared by the Cabinet, saying that the FPM had divided the Christian districts in a way that would make proportional representation ineffective and would serve its interests and that of the March 8 coalition. He cited the redrawing of districts lines to merge Jbeil and Kesrouan, and Jezzine and Zahrani, as examples of gerrymandering.
 
Commenting on Aoun’s position that he would ally with Geagea if the LF leader convinces him of an election law, Geagea said: “We are not ready to ally with Aoun if his allies abandon him or he abandons his allies or stays with them given his behavior, comments and rejection of reality.”
 
Lebanon’s 2009 parliamentary polls were held based on a version of the 1960 law that divides Lebanon into 26 qadas with a winner-takes-all system. Geagea rejected the current law as “inappropriate.”
 
He also said that suggestions by a March 8 politician that fighters from Libya, Afghanistan, Chechnya and other Arab countries were present in Lebanon should be considered a national treason.
 
“What do these suggestions mean at a time when they [March 8 coalition] are in power?” asked Geagea, calling on the government to arrest the men if they were in Lebanon.
 
“This [suggestion] is aimed at blowing up the situation in Lebanon and holding foreign fighters responsible for doing so.”