Jumblat Warns against Sectarian Rhetoric: Accord on Electoral Law Could Be Reached if Concessions Were Made

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat revealed on Wednesday that a consensus over an electoral law can be reached before the end of April “if the different factions try to reach common grounds”, warning against political rhetoric in Lebanon that is “encouraging sectarian tension”.

“If political parties insisted on their impossible conditions, we would enter a stage of vacuum and no elections will take place,” Jumblat warned in an interview on Future television.

He remarked : “No faction will be able to defeat another through the electoral law”.

President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati had signed a decree calling on the electoral bodies to hold the elections on June 9, drawing criticism from several March 8 figures.

Both statesmen expressed that their step stems from their “constitutional duty”, regardless of their stance towards the 1960's law.

However, a consensus has yet to be reached on the electoral law, after the Orthodox proposal, which considers Lebanon a single electoral district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system, was rejected by Suleiman, Miqati, Jumblat, al-Mustaqbal bloc and the March 14 opposition's Christian independent lawmakers.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri has been procrastinating on inviting for a General Assembly to give the rival blocs more time to reach consensus on a draft-law.

The National Struggle Front parliamentary bloc head expressed that the political rhetoric in Lebanon is inflaming sectarian tension.

“A civil war would not benefit anyone,” he pointed out.

Commenting on the cabinet's policy of disassociation towards Syria's conflict, Jumblat said “it would have been excellent if it was actually applied in the country”.

He added: “The delayed fall of (Syrian President Bashar) Assad's regime inflames sectarian tension”.

"We hope Hizbullah could change its stance towards Syria's conflict and restore its image of a true resistance against Israel,” Jumblat commented.