Members of the parliamentary subcommittee tasked with studying law proposals resumed their work Thursday with MPs voicing mixed views on whether consensus can emerge over a hybrid voting system for the upcoming elections.
During the committee meeting, Speaker Nabih Berri also handed lawmakers a new proposal that would see half of Parliament elected on the basis of the Orthodox Gathering format and the other under a winner-takes-all system with Lebanon divided into 26 districts.
“We will hold serious talks to reach a shared outlook over a new vote law,” said MP Ali Hasan Khalil, a member in Berri’s Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc, ahead of the meeting of the subcommittee that commenced at 11 a.m. and was later adjourned until 6 p.m.
Berri adjourned Wednesday a legislative session dedicated to examining the Orthodox Gathering proposal after the March 14 alliance, along with the Progressive Socialist Party, put forward a hybrid electoral law, making it impossible for the controversial March 8-backed voting system to pass.
Khalil said that the date of Parliament’s next legislative session would depend on the outcome of the subcommittee’s talks, adding that “nothing has been determined yet.”
The speaker chaired two meetings of the subcommittee Wednesday.
LF MP George Adwan, speaking ahead of Thursday’s subcommittee meeting, was downbeat over the chances of reaching a common stance over the hybrid formula.
“There are many difficulties because meetings and consultations in the previous couple of days reached a deadlock and there were no signs of a breakthrough,” he said.
Adwan had earlier met with Berri to discuss the hybrid formula that the LF, Future Movement and Progressive Socialist Party endorse, parliamentary sources said.
According to the sources, Adwan was seeking Berri’s support for the hybrid formula. The speaker, however, was reluctant to back the plan, the sources added.
MP Ali Fayyad, from Hezbollah’s Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc, told reporters ahead of the subcommittee meeting that his group had many reservations over the proposed hybrid draft law.
He said his bloc would only endorse an amended from of the draft law.
“We basically reject the hybrid law but we will hold discussions and state our reservations so that we can reach a positive solution,” said Fayyad.
With the LF teaming up with the Future Movement and the PSP in support of the hybrid formula, the Orthodox proposal has lost the majority it once enjoyed.
The LF’s stance sparked a flurry of statements from Christian lawmakers from across the political spectrum and outraged Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, one of the main supporters of the Orthodox proposal.
FPM politicians voiced different views over the plan before joining Thursday’s subcommittee meeting.
“We are open to discussions and to a hybrid formula that secures fair representation for Christians,” MP Alain Aoun said.
His colleague MP Ibrahim Kanaan, however, said the FPM would boycott Parliament should it put the hybrid proposal up for a vote.
“Everything that is happening has been imposed on us. We are not pleased with the way things are turning out,” he added.
