Houri: Bassil's Law Format Brings Back Logic of Civil War
Al-Mustaqbal MP Ammar Houri criticized on Monday an electoral law proposal suggested by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil saying “it brings us back to the logic of civil war.”
“The (so-called) qualification part of Bassil's proposal brings us back to the logic of civil war. It is very far from the constitution and the path drawn by the Taef agreement,” said Houri in an interview to VDL (100.5).
“Any electoral law must be based on the constitution and the Taef agreement,” he stressed.
The MP assured that negotiations to arrive at a new electoral law are ongoing.
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil announced recently that the political parties have reached a “preliminary agreement” over the so-called new “qualification electoral system”.
The system had been initially proposed by Speaker Nabih Berri several months ago before being eventually endorsed by Bassil.
Bassil's proposal suggests that in the first round, voting takes place in the current 26 districts and voters are not allowed to vote for candidates from other sects. Two candidates for each sectarian seat qualify for the second round during which voting would take place in 10 newly-defined electoral districts and according to a non-sectarian proportional representation polling system.
The law has not garnered consensus as yet, the Lebanese Forces and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat have openly rejected it.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement and other parties have also expressed their reservation.
7 years
The electoral law dispute has nothing to do with the fair representation of the Lebanese people in their government and everything to do with the relative power of the members of the political class vis a vis each other.
Hariri needs to know that he can garner the votes to remain as PM. Jumblatt doesn't want to be marginalized or made irrelevant. Aoun wants a governing majority in alliance with Hezbollah and Geagea wants the same with Mustaqbel. Frangieh, Sami Gemayel and Dori Chamoun are too small to have any impact on the political game.
For the people, they have been without government for so long that, government is largely irrelevant to the national life. They can do with it or without it, like reality tv.
Its just a game to see which gets to stand in line first to steal the national wealth.
Great. Now, where do Atheists, Buddhists, Baha'i, Episcopalians, Zoroastrians and Thelemites go to vote under this system?