Berri Urges Two-Thirds Cabinet Approval on Electoral Law

As efforts stall to find a new law that will govern Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary elections, Speaker Nabih Berri said the cabinet could approve the draft electoral law with two-thirds majority to be referred and approved in the parliament, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

An agreement on a new electoral law has not been reached as yet, as efforts and consultations between political parties continue the latest was a meeting Friday evening at the Grand Serail following a cabinet session.

The daily said that Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil and Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil held a meeting after the cabinet concluded a session dedicated to approving the country's 2017 budget.

The three men's discussions, which lasted for more than two hours, focused on the controversial electoral law, said the daily.

Meanwhile Berri has expressed a desire that the cabinet approves the electoral law draft with a two-thirds majority of votes to then be referred to parliament for discussion and approval, concluded the daily.

Political parties are bickering over amending the current majoritarian 1960 election law which divides seats among the different religious sects.

While al-Mustaqbal Movement has rejected that the electoral law be fully based on proportional representation, arguing that Hizbullah's arms would prevent serious competition in the party's strongholds, Jumblat has totally rejected proportional representation, even within a hybrid law, warning that it would “marginalize” the minority Druze community.

Hizbullah, Mustaqbal, the Free Patriotic Movement, AMAL Movement and the Lebanese Forces are meanwhile discussing several formats of a so-called hybrid electoral law that mixes proportional representation with the winner-takes-all system.

The country has not organized parliamentary elections since 2009 and the legislature has instead twice extended its own mandate.

The last polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the next vote is scheduled for May.