Press Digest for Thursady May 17, 2012

The following are summaries of today's major stories published in the Arabic press. LBCI does not edit press digest articles for content, giving English-language readers insight into the various views expressed in newspapers across the Arab world.   

• Bkerke committee: 50 districts of 2 to 3 deputies each      

As-Safir daily reported on Thursday that the Bkerke committee charged with discussing the electoral law is about to complete the report that will be soon submitted to the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai.         

During the committee’s meeting held on Wednesday in the Parliament in the presence of MP Alain Aoun, MP Georges Adwan, former ministers Youssef Saade and Albert Kostanian, and in the absence of former minister Ziad Baroud due to his travel to Qatar. The meeting ended by setting a project law based on small districts with 2 to 3 deputies each, making 50 districts where elections will be based on the majoritarian electoral system.     

According to As-Safir, during next week the proportionality law will be drafted based on medium-sized districts           

• Hussein Khalil: Hezbollah does not have information on Tripoli events    

Political aide to Hezbollah Secretary General Al-Hajj Hussein Khalil told Al-Liwaa newspaper that what happened in Tripoli resulted from fueling the sectarian tensions which affected some parties with its negative repercussions on the country's stability and civil peace.          

Khalil stressed that Hezbollah does not have any information on Tripoli events and the arrest of Shadi Al-Mawlawi other than the information in the hands of the security apparatuses. He also called on all the state’s institutions and apparatuses to take their normal places on all the Lebanese territories and not only in Tripoli. “if we want a radical solution to all these internal conflicts and security setbacks, we request that all the parties save the confessional and inciting language from their political speeches since it affect everyone negatively”, he added.            

• Mikati sources confirm his stance not a message to the “Future”         

Sources close to PM Najib Mikati denied that PM’s statement on running for the parliamentary elections is a direct message to the Future.          

Al-Liwaa daily reported that chances to reach a settlement, between the two former allies, is out of reach, at least for the time being, since Mikati’s statement came as a firm reply to all attempts aiming at repeating 2005 scenario, where he accepted the Prime Minister’s position, abandoning his deputy seat in the North. On the other hand, Hezbollah prefers that Mikati remains a strong ally in the North.         

• Alloush: security apparatus to clearly accuse Mawlawi         

Future Movement politburo member, former MP Mustafa Alloush told Acharq al-Awsat daily that it is very important for the security apparatuses to take the appropriate measures and clearly accuse Shadi al-Mawlawi without adopting a mysterious technique as the one adopted in his arrest.         

In a statement to the daily, Alloush said that Wednesday agreement came after agreeing on not to exaggerate with the appearances and stop the strike in Tripoli, since all the participating parties in Tripoli are well aware that there is an attempt to make the city seems as if it were beyond the law and legitimacy and a shelter for terrorists and extremists.