Baabda Session to Witness Heated Debate over Formation of Electoral Authority

The upcoming cabinet session at the Baabda Palace is expected to witness a confrontation with President Michel Suleiman over the formation of an independent authority overseeing the elections.

Sources in the March 8 majority told As Safir newspaper that a decision was taken to vote against the formation of the committee.

“Even if the president threatened to suspend attending the cabinet sessions or he withdrew his ministers from it, we will not back on our decision,” the sources told the newspaper.

They pointed out that if the March 8 alliance had to choose between a de facto elections according to the 1960 law, which is based on winner-takes-all system, or obstructing the polls – even if it lead to a government crisis- the majority will adopt the second option.

The government that will convene at the Baabda Palace on Thursday will tackle two main controversial issue, the referral of the new wage scale for public employees to the parliament and the establishment of the authority overseeing elections.

For his part, centrist Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat considered in comments published in As Safir that the formation of the committee is an “administrative routine.”

“The 1960 law was approved by the parliament and only it can cancel it,” Jumblat said.

The Druze leader revealed that his minister will vote with the formation of the committee, pointing out that opposing it violates the norms.

“The 1960 law still exists and it's valid until we agree on a new electoral law,” Jumblat stated.

Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati have signed a decree that sets the elections on June 9 based on the 1960 law that was used in the 2009 polls over the lack of agreement between the bickering parliamentary blocs.

Their call have drawn the ire of the March 8 majority coalition which has rejected the law.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel ruled out in comments published in An Nahar newspaper that the polls will be held within the constitutional time frame.

“We have no further time to approve the new law after agreeing on it,” he said.

Charbel pointed out that his ministry will require a lot of time to prepare the upcoming parliamentary elections according to the mechanism adopted in the new electoral law.

A consensus over an electoral law has yet to be reached after the Orthodox Gathering's proposal that considers Lebanon a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system, was opposed by Suleiman, Miqati, al-Mustaqbal bloc, the PSP, and the independent Christian MPs of the March 14 opposition.

They argue that the proposal harms the social fabric and increases sectarian tension.