Bassil makes fresh demands as Lebanese politicians debate electoral law

Beirut: Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jibran Bassil added fresh demands to the proposed new electoral law in the country, which threatened to bring the negotiations deadlock back to square one.

The optimism that followed the June 1 Baabda Palace accord between President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Saad Hariri is rapidly vanishing despite a recent surge of optimism after the framework was agreed on based on the principle of proportional representation with 15 electoral districts.

Political rivals are in a race against time to agree and approve the new law before the June 20 deadline when parliament’s term expires.

Bassil now wants to tie the electoral law with “a political agreement” confirming parity between Muslims and Christians in a constitutional text, a pledge to establish a Senate as stipulated by the 1989 Taif Accords, a reduction of the number of parliamentary seats from 128 to 108 — because the additional 20 seats were added in 1989 under Syrian tutelage — a s well as allocating six seats, presumably from the 108, to Lebanese expatriate voters.

Speaker Berri opposes these demands, insisting that equal power sharing between Muslims and Christians is already consecrated in the Constitution and the Taif Accords, and that a new constitutional text will open a pandora’s box for those who are calling for a new constitutional convention.