The Daily Star, Lebanon
Jan 26 2005

Arguments flare over Lebanese electoral law
Hariri to have 2 lists in Beirut

By Nayla Assaf and Nada Raad
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s draft electoral law has created furious rows
between the country’s opposition and government loyalists.

As was widely predicted, the new law envisages the division of the
capital into three electoral districts.

Under the proposal the country will be divided into 26 districts.

It also introduces two popular amendments: the lowering of the voting
age to 18 and more controversially, it proposes allocating 30 percent
of seats in Parliament to women.

The Cabinet expected to formally discuss the law later this week, but
Premier Omar Karami refuted criticisms, insisting the law could still
be amended.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh’s remarks earlier this
week in which he warned the Christian opposition against aligning
itself with former premier Rafik Hariri in Beirut continue to cause
controversy.

Speaking on Sunday night, Franjieh threatened revoke the proposal to
partition Beirut into three districts, which is largely deemed
favorable to Christians.

He said: “If the state feels that its stake in the electoral battle
is under threat, it will seek its own interests and redistribute the
cards in Beirut.”

He also said that he finally decided, in his proposal, to split Sidon
and the Zahrani into two separate districts, following the demand of
Speaker Nabih Berri.

Franjieh said: “His demand was very logical. He is demanding that the
1960 law be applied as is concerning the Sidon-Zahrani area.”

In an unusual nod to Jumblatt, Franjieh had also said that his law
proposal did not restrict Jumblatt’s power.

Franjieh’s comments were sharply criticised by Karami, who said: “I
do not agree with [Franjieh’s] comments, because we say that we have
constitutional institutions, which judge such issues.”

Jbeil MP Fares Soueid, a prominent member of the Christian
opposition, lashed out at Franjieh and demanded the Cabinet’s
resignation.

“The words of Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh yesterday were
extremely dangerous and confirm the authorities’ plans to sabotage
opposition lists,” he said.

Speaking to the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International,
Soueid said: “How alliances are forged is not the business of the
interior minister. His task should be limited to producing an
electoral law and guaranteeing the impartiality of the state.”

Speaking after a meeting of the Democratic Gathering, Chouf MP Walid
Jumblatt’s parliamentary coalition, Baabda MP Bassem Sabaa said
Franjieh “is trying to announce the [election] results in advance.
The opposition will remain unified and that victory will be on its
side despite the falsification attempts and the attempts to pressure
public opinion.”

He added the draft electoral law was “an attempt to bribe Lebanese
public opinion through the introduction of a quota for women and the
lowering of the voting age to 18”.

He said: “Our position concerning the lowering of the voting age is
well known even if the authorities introduced it in order to get more
votes.”

Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party has been requesting that the
voting age be lowered for several years.

Sabaa also confirmed earlier claims by Jumblatt that the opposition
will ask the United Nations to intervene in case of violations in the
electoral process.

Meanwhile, contrary to government expectations, former Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri announced he will run in Beirut’s third electoral
district, and not in the first district, which includes a majority of
Sunni voters.

Sources close to Hariri said he will have two complete lists in
Beirut.

The first one in the third district, which has nine seats, is mostly
Shiite and Armenian, and the second is in the six-seat mostly Sunni
first district.

But Hariri will not present a list for Achrafieh, which he will leave
to his allies in the Christian opposition.

lso, amid the rising tensions, President Emile Lahoud defended the
authorities’ performance, reiterating that the new electoral law will
be fair and just and treating all regions equally.

Lahoud also vowed the government will provide a suitable climate to
allow elections to be held freely and in the most honest and
transparent manner.

He said that discussions of the draft electoral law should not resort
to terms that spark sectarian rife and encourage domestic divisions.

Information Minister Elie Ferzli said Tuesday that the Syrian
authorities have chosen not to interfere in the coming parliamentary
elections.