Interior Minister to Propose New Electoral Law if Previous Suggestion is Rejected

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed that he had devised a new parliamentary electoral law should the one he had proposed be rejected, reported As Safir newspaper on Tuesday.

He told the daily that the new proposal caters to officials who are demanding the adoption of proportional representation and others who are calling for small electoral districts.

He explained that the new draft law calls for holding the elections over two phases.

In the first phase, each individual votes for the candidate of his own sect and in the second phase, nationwide elections are held for the candidates that succeeded in the first round.

Cabinet approved in August an electoral draft law based on proportional representation and 13 electoral districts.

The decision was met with rejection from the opposition and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat.

Opposition MPs George Adwan, Sami Gemayel and Butros Harb proposed an electoral law based on 50 small-sized districts in a winner-takes-all system, while a plan suggested by MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc would allow every sect to elect its own MPs under a proportional representation system with Lebanon as a single district.

The parliamentary elections are expected to be held in 2013.