Hussein Dakroub|
BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri Monday backed off from calling for legislative sessions to pass urgent bills in the face of opposition by key Christian blocs, and instead decided to urge joint committees to mull a raft of electoral draft laws.
Speaking at a rare news conference at his Ain al-Tineh residence, Berri said he will not call for a parliamentary session before discussions over a new electoral law are completed. Berri’s stance effectively fulfills a key demand of the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces, which have refused to attend any legislative session unless an electoral law is listed as the first item on the agenda.
Berri said he has in Parliament 17 electoral draft laws and proposals that have been submitted by a number of lawmakers and a 10-member parliamentary committee tasked with drafting a new electoral law to replace the 1960 voting system. The committee, which includes MPs from the March 8 and March 14 blocs and independents, has failed to reach an agreement on a unified electoral law following several rounds of talks.
“I will call again on joint parliamentary committees to restudy all these draft laws and proposals to answer two questions only: Firstly, the kind of districts, and secondly, the kind of the [voting] system,” Berri said.
“I will not call for a session before the joint committees complete their work with regard to an electoral law. This position is not a retreat from my convictions, but a show of respect for you [Christian blocs] and keenness on Lebanon,” he said. He stressed that, much like the country, an electoral law needs consensus among the Lebanese.
Berri said the joint committees will eventually have to choose two or three proposals among the 17 electoral draft laws so that these can be taken to the General Assembly for a vote. He said some of these proposals call for a hybrid electoral law, which includes a proportional voting system as well as the present winner-takes-all system. Other proposals call for declaring Lebanon one district.
“Let’s work day and night with the others to come out with a unified or close vision, or limited to two or three proposals in such a way we can go to the General Assembly to choose one of them,” Berri said.
The country’s major Christian parties, complaining of what they view as a lack of true Christian representation in Parliament, have long demanded a new electoral law to replace the 1960 voting system, which called for electoral districts to be based on the qadas.
Berri has pledged to convene Parliament to pass urgent bills despite opposition by the FPM and the LF, which insist that an electoral law should be the first item on the agenda of any legislative session.
He made a proposal to convene legislative sessions with an electoral draft law being among other essential topics on the agenda during a national dialogue session last week which was attended by rival political leaders, but has not received a response yet.
Addressing the FPM and the LF, Berri said: “They don’t want to join me, I will join them. You don’t want legislation, or legislation of necessity, without the approval of a new electoral law, yet I have 17 draft laws in Parliament waiting to be discussed.”
Amid the 23-month-long presidential vacuum, Berri insisted that Parliament has the right to legislate in all conditions.
The Kataeb Party bloc has refused to attend any Parliament session before the election of a president.
Berri said a quorum of 75 to 80 MPs was secured for a legislative session, hinting that the parliamentary Future bloc would have attended.
Parliament extended its own term twice, once in 2013 and again in 2014. Since its second extension in 2014, Parliament met once in November 2015 to pass urgent financial draft laws, as well as a food safety law and a controversial citizenship law.
Berri said internal developments and the turmoil in the region have led to the “clinical death” of both the March 8 and March 14 camps.
“What is happening with us and around us is causing the clinical death of the so-called March 8 and March 14 … Nobody says anymore we are all for the nation,” he said, in reference to Lebanon’s national anthem.
Berri scoffed at a reported proposal to elect MP Michel Aoun as president for two years as a way out of the presidential impasse.
“I am not aware of this matter. This talk is a waste of time because such a proposal needs an amendment of the Constitution,” he said, adding: “If we can amend the Constitution, we can then elect a president.”
Berri stressed that the municipal elections, planned in four stages across Lebanon next month, would take place on time.
Gunshots could be heard in some Beirut neighborhoods such as Bashoura during Berri’s speech, in a traditional show of support for a political leader.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri also rejected proposals to elect a president for two years and called to elect a president for a full six-year mandate.
“The proposed solutions to elect a president for two years or any other reduced period need a constitutional amendment. We will not approve such proposals, because we consider that the constitutional and normal solution to end the presidential vacancy is for the MPs to head to Parliament and elect a president for six years,” Hariri told delegations of Beiruti families at his Downtown Beirut residence in the presence Jamal Itani, Hariri’s choice for the presidency of Beirut’s municipal council.
He said the municipal elections would be held on time. Hariri hoped that the ongoing contacts with all the political parties and representatives of the capital’s components would be completed in the next few hours, so that the Future Movement-backed list would be announced Tuesday. He said it would respect parity between Christians and Muslims.
“They tried from the beginning to accuse Future Movement of seeking to postpone the elections, but I assure you that these elections will take place on time because they are essential for the advancement of Beirut and all towns and villages in this country,” Hariri said.