The
second round of the meetings held by the parliamentary sub-committee tasked
with discussing the electoral law kicked off on Monday morning at
Parliament.
After
the meeting, MP Robert Ghanem said that the positions of each bloc are previously known and show each
party's point of view concerning the elections and mentioned that the session
will recommence today afternoon in hopes of reaching an agreement for the
electoral law.
For
his part Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel said that there are 2 laws in Parliament
awaiting ratification; the personal status law and that of civil marriage.
“The
Kataeb party proposed the civil marriage law in 1969, we call on parliament to
take on its duty in this regard in hopes of opening the path towards civil
partnership in the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, the LF Deputy George
Adwan lauded the "personal initiative" of Nidal and Kholoud
Succariyeh for drafting the first civil marriage contract and added that his
party is open to all suggestions pertaining to the electoral law.
As for Future Bloc MP Ahmad Fatfat, he
reiterated his call on all parties to make compromises in order to reach common
grounds.
“We are against a proportional
representation law and also against the elections taking place with Lebanon
turned into one single district, but we remain open to dialogue in order to
reach consensus,” he said.
In turn, the Loyalty to the
Resistance bloc MP Ali Fayyad said that those constantly “attacking the
proportional representation law fear their true representative size”, calling for
unified stances and a stop to opinion duality in regards to the law.
“Our mission is to reach a fair
electoral law so that elections can be held on time,” MP Fayyad added.
Fayyad confirmed that he vetoed a
proposal of having 128 districts which means having a district for each 4-5
towns and pointed out that there is not enough time to discuss such a proposal.
As for the representative of the
Change and Reform Bloc MP Alain Aoun, he said that the “gap remains wide since
points of view are very contradictory on the merging of the majoritarian and proportional
representation law”.
MP Akram Chehayeb also said that the
gap between the different parties is huge.
“I insist on administrative
decentralization and on the formation of a senate,” Chehayeb said.
The Development and Liberation MP
Ali Bazzi said that there will be more consultations and added that Deputies
are holding meetings to reach a solution.
“Our national responsibility lies on
us being aware of the delicate situation in the country,” Bazzi stressed.
The
committee has been discussing law variations for approximately two weeks in an
attempt to draft a new electoral law which would be agreed upon by all parties
and guarantee just representation for
all.
Sources told LBCI that a number of deputies
hinted that the sessions may come to a conclusion by
Wednesday.
Following his meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri, MP Sami Gemayel stated that Berri insists on following the electoral protocol and will accordingly be calling on the joint parliamentary committees to convene in order to refer the electoral draft law to parliament to be voted upon.
According to Gemayel, Berri is committed to the decision of the sub-committee and stressed that he will be supporting a law which combines the proportional representation law and elements of the majoritarian system.