Jumblat and Bloc Members File Electoral Candidacies Based on 1960 Law
National Struggle Front members led by MP Walid Jumblat submitted on Thursday to the interior ministry their candidacies for the parliamentary elections.
The National News Agency said the seven candidates are Jumblat, Nehme Tohme, Elie Aoun and Alaeddine Terro from the Shouf district, Akram Shehhayeb representing electorates in Aley, Ayman Shuqair from Baabda and Wael Abu Faour from the Western Bekaa.
The submission of their candidacies for the polls was based on the controversial 1960 law that considers the qada an electoral district and is based on the winner-takes-all system.
The delegate of Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party, who submitted the candidacies, told reporters outside the interior ministry that the move was in harmony with the stance of President Michel Suleiman on avoiding a vacuum in the absence of a new electoral law.
“The 1960 law is still effective until we agree on an alternative electoral law,” said Nashat Husniyeh.
Asked why PSP member Caretaker Minister Ghazi Aridi hadn't filed his candidacy, Husniyeh said: “Aridi is not willing to run in the polls.”
The filing of candidacies by Jumblat's bloc is likely to draw the anger of the main Christian parties that on Wednesday agreed during a meeting chaired by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki not to run in the upcoming elections under the 1960 law.
The leaders and representatives of the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange Party and the Marada Movement also agreed to suspend the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal, leaving the door open for rival MPs to strike a deal on a new electoral draft-law.
The proposal, which had been severely rejected by Jumblat's bloc, considers Lebanon a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional presentational system.
The Christian leaders asked Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on Wednesday to stop accepting applications from candidates registering to run in the polls under the 1960 law.
But Charbel told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that he can't prevent anyone from filing his candidacy.
“The Bkirki meeting's request is not based on the law. It is only moral,” he said.
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