Phalange Restates Support for Small Districts Law, Says Refugee 'Crisis' Should Be Controlled

Phalange Central Committee Coordinator MP Sami Gemayel restated on Monday his party's support for the small electoral districts' law, rejecting any postponement of the parliamentary elections.

"This law fairly represents the different Lebanese communities,” Gemayel said after the weekly meeting of the party's political bureau, explaining that stability in the country will “only be secured if everyone was accurately represented in the parliament”.

The March 14 opposition Christians had reached an agreement with al-Mustaqbal on a plan to divide Lebanon into 50 small-sized districts based on a winner-takes-all system and referred it to parliament.

"We voice out again our rejection of the 1960 law,” the MP stated, adding that “any rescheduling of the elections is a breach of the law”.

The 1960 law, which adopts the district as an electoral district, was adopted in the 2009 parliamentary elections.

On the Orthodox Gathering's suggested electoral law, Gemayel said: "It assures an equal Christian-Muslim power sharing”.

“We have expressed our support to it six months ago but Hizbullah, AMAL movement and the Progressive Socialist Party were the ones that turned it down,” he noted.

The Orthodox Gathering had proposed a law under which each sect would elect its own lawmakers.

Commenting on the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, the Phalange MP said that it is turning into a “crisis that requires the interference of Lebanese authorities to control the border”.

“Controlling the flow of refugees would help the international community in providing us with logistic aid,” Gemayel said.

“Only then we will be able to perform our humanitarian duties towards them,” he added.

The MP remarked: "We are not demanding closing the border against the refugees but of controlling it only”.

Gemayel called for the formation of a crisis cell to deal with the issue of refugees and assure their return to Syria.

"We also urge the Lebanese authorities to monitor the flow of Syria's Palestinian refugees,” Gemayel stated.

"Soon there will be an inflation of Palestinians, and it will encourage their integration with those already in Lebanon's camps,” he said, explaining that this would demotivate them from returning to the neighboring country.

“We care for the refugees but not at the expense of the Lebanese people whose interest must be on top of our priorities,” the Phalange bloc MP expressed.

According to the latest report issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 170,637 Syrian refugees have been registered in Lebanon while reports say that around 50,000 are still not registered.

Gemayel also noted that the cost of March 14 lawmakers' stay at a hotel in downtown Beirut during the electoral subcommittee's meetings will be completely covered by them.

The electoral subcommittee is scheduled to convene on Tuesday after the March 14 opposition agreed to Speaker Nabih Berri's proposal of residing in a hotel near the parliament building in downtown Beirut, as a safety precaution.

The Phalange Party hoped in a statement after the meeting that consultations would be intensified “through or with” President Michel Suleiman to remove the reasons that led to the cancellation of the national dialogue.

It renewed “its faith in the efforts being exerted by Suleiman” to persuade the various political factions to return to the all-party talks.

The opposition alliance had announced following the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan on October 19 that they will be boycotting the national dialogue sessions and the government's work, awaiting Prime Minister Najib Miqati's resignation.

Commenting on the fierce storm lashing Lebanon, the politburo said: “Given the lack of serious government measures to confront the storm, the Phalange Party calls on the citizens to exercise caution to avoid the dangers of the weather.”

It noted that the government failed in approving the draft law devised over ten years ago by late former Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel on how to tackle natural and unnatural disasters.

It demanded that the cabinet address the law that ensures coordination between state institutions and its various agencies in a manner that would effectively tackle disasters.