Hariri from Baabda: Electoral Law Must be Finalized before Cabinet Session
Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced after talks Sunday with President Michel Aoun that the new electoral law “must be finalized before the Cabinet session” that will be held Wednesday.
“The atmospheres are positive and the approval of the electoral law must be expedited,” Hariri added.
Baabda Palace sources have told al-Mustaqbal newspaper that the remaining hurdles are expected to be resolved “in the next three days.”
“The consecutive meetings that have been held among the political parties have devised a consensual roadmap to approve the proportional representation law on which the three presidents have agreed,” the daily said.
According to the aforementioned “roadmap,” the draft will face a first test in Cabinet on Wednesday before being referred to Parliament for approval by the end of the week.
The draft law is fully based on the proportional representation electoral system and the parties have agreed that the polls will be held in 15 electoral districts. They are still however wrangling over the mechanism of counting votes going for so-called preferred candidates on the electoral ballots and whether it should depend on the electoral districts or the administrative districts.
The Free Patriotic Movement has argued that confining the preferred vote to the smaller administrative districts would allow Christians to elect more MPs with their own votes.
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