Matar Denies Making Specific Proposal over Report of Hybrid Vote Plan Backed by Suleiman
Beirut Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar has been tasked by Bkirki to promote a hybrid electoral plan that was previously proposed by President Michel Suleiman, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday despite the clergyman's denial.
An Nahar said that the proposal allows 68 candidates to be elected under the winner-takes-all system in 26 electoral districts and 60 via proportional representation in 11 districts.
The plan had faced several obstacles over differences between the rival parties on the division of seats under the two systems, the daily added.
When asked by Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) about the report, Matar denied that he had made a “specific proposal.”
“We are in the process of searching for a consensus vote law that is fair to all” after the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal was dropped by the four main Christian parties, he said.
The Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange party and the Marada movement had announced the plan as their choice for a new vote law. But last month, the rival Maronite leaders decided to suspend their proposal in a bid to give different groups a chance to agree on an alternative law.
They however declared the 1960 election law as “dead and buried” and pledged not to run for elections under it.
Matar, who on Tuesday met with President Michel Suleiman, al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora and caretaker minister Wael Abu Faour, told al-Joumhouria newspaper that the talks came as part of consultations on the electoral law.
“I delivered a message from Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi to Saniora on his hopes to agree on a fair vote law and hold the elections on time,” the bishop said.
He then briefed Suleiman on the results of the meetings he held with the Lebanese officials. Matar met on Friday with Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat.
Abu Faour and MP Akram Shehayyeb, two Jumblat envoys, visited Matar on Tuesday as a goodwill gesture after the bishop's meeting with the PSP chief in Mukhtara.
“Things are making progress,” Matar told al-Joumhouria.
The bishop also said that Maronite leaders will hold a meeting in Bkirki before May 15 to study the results of the consultations held among the country's political figures to reach consensus on a vote law.
Speaker Nabih Berri has set a May 15 parliamentary session that would have the Orthodox Gathering proposal on its agenda for being the only plan that was approved by the joint parliamentary committees unless an agreement is reached on an alternative plan before that date.
Several blocs and independent MPs are likely to challenge it even if it was adopted by parliament, which will bring the country back to the 1960 law that was used in the 2009 polls.
That law considers the qada an electoral district and is based on the winner-takes-all system. But most parties have rejected it despite their failure to reach consensus on a new plan.
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