Sources: Hizbullah, FPM Pressure Halts Berri-Jumblat Talks on Hybrid Vote Law
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Consultations between Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on a hybrid electoral draft-law have reached a dead end over pressure exerted by the speaker's allies in the March 8 majority alliance, PSP sources said Tuesday.
The sources told al-Liwaa newspaper that Berri suggested instead a draft-law that considers Lebanon a single district after coming under pressure by Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun.
The hybrid vote law combines the winner-takes-all and the proportional representation systems.
A proposal that was made by the opposition al-Mustaqbal movement in coordination with the PSP calls for choosing 70 lawmakers through the winner-takes-all system and 58 through proportionality based on a division of 26 districts for the first system and 9 governorates for the second.
The consultations between the two parties later expanded to the rest of the factions in Lebanon.
In remarks to As Safir daily on Monday, Jumblat said: “There are consultations in different directions. Al-Mustaqbal bloc is in contact with the Lebanese Forces and I am in contact with Berri.”
But the PSP sources said Tuesday that negotiations between Berri and Jumblat stopped after the pressure exerted on the speaker by his allies Hizbullah and the FPM that support a single electoral district.
Contacts between al-Mustaqbal and the PSP have also slowed over differences on the district of Baabda, informed sources told al-Liwaa on Monday.
Only one proposal, the so-called Orthodox Gathering plan, has been approved by the joint parliamentary committees, the last step before holding a General Assembly to give it the final go ahead.
But Berri has vowed not to invite MPs for a parliamentary session before the rival factions reach consensus on a draft-law.
President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Jumblat's PSP, al-Mustaqbal and the March 14 opposition's Christian independent lawmakers have rejected the Orthodox Gathering proposal which considers Lebanon a single electoral district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.
They have warned that if parliament adopts the draft it would harm the social fabric and deepen sectarian divisions in addition to leading to extremism.
12 March 2013, 08:54
46
The duplicitous nature of the Hizb and Aoun is on full display!
12 March 2013, 10:11
45
Jumblat has nothing to offer a fair electoral system. Jumblat is concerned about maintaining his disproportionate grip on power. Jumblat has been and will be the last stumbling block to a fair electoral outcome.
12 March 2013, 11:05
54
Tis is a perfect illustration of the failed sectarian system. Christian this, muslim this, durzi that....
We need a democracy like the Israeli one but without their racism and segregate system.
12 March 2013, 11:18
44
Democracy in Israel! ... You obviously don't know of the plight of the Israeli Arab "citizens" that are denied property rights, elected offices, judgeships ... etc, etc ... The only Israeli with full rights is a Jewish Israeli .... Do some homework Mr. Jabbour !!!
12 March 2013, 15:09
00
mckinl - Re-read what andre wrote "We need a democracy like the Israeli one but without their racism and segregate system."
12 March 2013, 15:27
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@ rafehh
He was obviously referring to the West Bank and Gaza not the Israeli Arabs ... otherwise what is the huge difference between the Parliamentary system in Lebanon and Israel?
If that is not the case then what king of real democracy runs on racism and segregation? Jabbour only wants to confound and confuse the issue of Israeli Apartheid and the fact that Israel is only for Jews.
12 March 2013, 11:28
22
Israeli Arab Situation - BBC
More than half of Israeli-Arab families are living in poverty, compared to about 15% of Jewish Israeli families, and the gap is widening.
For all but one of the past five years, Israeli-Arab communities have received less than 5% of government development funding each year, according to the Mossawa advocacy centre.
Municipal services in many Israeli-Arab communities are inferior to those in Jewish areas, with classrooms shortages, ageing roads and a lack of local employment opportunities.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8165338.stm
12 March 2013, 13:36
00
supporting the orthodox law is the right choice for everything:including the MPS 64=64,THE PERESIDENCY..THE PRESIDENT OF THE GOVMT...THE SPEAKER AND ALL THE FIRST CLASS GVMT JOBS,that is the real position of hizballah too.
12 March 2013, 14:42
11
im with a single district and people will vote to whom ever they want.. and then they can divide the law makers..
12 March 2013, 15:18
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Karim - neither! And that is why Aoun and the Hizb are duplicitous. They open the pandora box to people like you who have very little understanding of what democracy is - which the equality of citizenship. We are not citizens of sects that are represented in parliament. We are citizens with direct responsability to the state and vica versa. Tell me one civilized country that has the same law as the one you are supporting? Do you not see the duplicitous nature of these when Aoun states that fpm will only support a law that guarantee christians elect 50 percent of vote and then propose lebanon as one district with one person one vote (which I think is fair). Such a law will at most enable christians to elect 33 percent of members of parliament (which reflects demographics).
12 March 2013, 17:26
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Hezb and Amal hijacked the Christian and Shiite vote in their areas (thanks to weapons)
12 March 2013, 17:28
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But Berri has vowed not to invite MPs for a parliamentary session before the rival factions reach consensus on a draft-law...... I am sure the constitution does not grant him such power,but this is Lebanon where a spokesman for the Meqdad clan gets more attention than the constitution.
12 March 2013, 17:46
00
i fully support the orthodox law on all levels:
the senate
the presidency
the prime ministry
all the first class gvmt jobs i.e. governor of central bk,army chief, moukhabarat interior ministry...
plse mr administrator put this comment its already largely on the street
