The
meeting of the parliamentary sub-committee tasked with discussing the
electoral law came to a close on Friday after it had convened under the chairmanship of MP Robert Ghanem and in the presence of MPs Sami Gemayel, Akram Chehayeb, Ali Bazzi, Hagop bakradonian, George Adwan, Serge Torsarkissian, and Ahmad Fatfat.
MP Alain Aoun boycotted the meeting and said that he would only attend at the end of the session after the meetings' minutes is signed.
Adwan who met with Speaker Nabih Berri, praised the latter's support of the Orthodox Gathering's proposed law "based on his wishes of the Christian consensus."
Berri stressed that so long as Christian parties agree on the Orthodox Gathering draft law, he would endorse it.
In turn, MP Ali Fayad expected this meeting
to be the last, pointing out that the committee will not take any
decision without consulting the Free Patriotic Movement. “I will try to
convince the other parties of the proportional representation-based
electoral law,” he said.
Following the session, the MPs who attended the meeting held a press conference and delivered a series of statements.
In
this context, MP Ghanem said that the electoral sub-committee will
resume its meetings on Monday afternoon to find common points of view
regarding the electoral law.
For his part, MP Torsarkissian stressed that no electoral law will pass unless it is approved by all parties.
Commenting
on the absence of MP Alain Aoun, Torsarkissian said: "We are all keen
on Christians rights and MP Alain Aoun is taking up the role of the
defender of these rights."
In turn, MP Adwan revealed that MP Aoun
will be attending Monday's meeting. He also announced that the
meeting’s minutes was closed, hoping that the number of deputies in the
parliament will go back to be 108 instead of 128.
"Everyone agrees that there is no going back to the 1960s electoral law," Adwan affirmed.
Adwan then added that Speaker Berri considers that "the committee’s work aims at yielding results and not wasting time."
This
as, MP Sami Gemayel stated: "Today, we completed our work as a
parliamentary committee; now it’s up to Berri to determine the date for
the joint committees’ session to convene."
MP Fayad commented on
the number of deputies and emphasized that it must be kept as it is.
"The increase of number of MPs should be limited to expatriates," he
concluded.
In this regard, sources reported that
the minutes of the sub-committee will be finalized by Monday and will
include three electoral law proposals: the law proposed by the Orthodox
Gathering, the smaller districts law and the proportionality law
endorsed by the cabinet.
According to the sources, the minutes
will include an approval on the increase of deputy number (2 for the
Syriacs, 1 for the Catholics, 1 for the Sunnites, 1 for the Shiites and
one for the Druze), as well as the request of the Lebanese Forces to
reduce the number of MPs to 108 and Hezbollah and Amal's support for the
increase of 6 lawmakers to represent Lebanese expatriates.
The sub-committee will be convening in its last session on Monday.