Berri: No Session before May 15 Unless there is Consensus on Vote Law

Speaker Nabih Berri has rejected appeals made by rival lawmakers for a parliamentary session before May 15 over the absence of a consensual electoral draft-law.

In remarks to local newspapers published Wednesday, Berri said he can't call for such a session without having a consensual vote law on parliament's agenda.

“If I decide to call for a session now, I will only have the Orthodox Gathering proposal on the agenda for being the only plan approved by the joint parliamentary committees and referred to the general assembly,” the speaker said.

“If a session was held under such circumstances, then the political parties would bicker in no vain,” he said. “So it would be better for them to fight outside the parliament.”

The so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal considers Lebanon a single electoral district and allows each sect to vote for its own lawmakers under a proportional representation system.

Despite its adoption by the joint committees, it has been rejected by al-Mustaqbal bloc, the National Struggle Front and March 14 alliance's independent Christian MPs.

A parliamentary subcommittee that was tasked with finding an alternative to the 1960 vote law failed on Tuesday to reach consensus on a hybrid proposal made by Berri that calls for 50 percent of MPs be elected under the proportional representation system and the other half through the winner-takes-all system.

The subcommittee's chairman, MP Robert Ghanem, announced the suspension of the meetings over the “huge gap” between the rival MPs from the March 8 and March 14 alliances in addition to the centrist National Struggle Front.

But Berri criticized the suspension, saying “the subcommittee could have reached some common ground.”

He stressed that he would call for consecutive parliamentary sessions if the lawmakers failed by May 15 to reach consensus on a vote law.

But he warned that he would resort to voting on the Orthodox Gathering proposal if they failed during the sessions to agree on a draft-law because it is the only plan that was approved by the joint committees.

“Those who are dreaming of the return to the 1960 law will keep dreaming,” Berri said.

The 1960 law that considers the qada an electoral district and is based on the winner-takes-all system was used in the 2009 elections with some amendments.

But the majority of parties have rejected it for not guaranteeing a fair representation for all the Lebanese, mainly Christians.

Berri also rejected accusations that some parties were seeking to link the cabinet formation process to the agreement on the vote law.

“The formation of the government should reflect positively on the discussions to agree on the electoral law and vice versa,” he said.

But he warned that failure to agree on a vote law should not obstruct the formation of the cabinet.