BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized the government’s new draft electoral law based on proportional representation Wednesday, decrying the legislation as gerrymandering in favor of March 8’s electoral interests.
 
“Drafting the law was an attempt to divide the districts unfairly in favor of March 8 more than it was an attempt to correct representation,” Geagea said.
 
Speaking at a news conference at his residence in Maarab, the LF leader announced that his party would back an electoral law based on small districts. “Sixty-one districts throughout the country is the best way to ensure fair Christian representation and is much better than any proportional representation law,” he said.
 
Geagea added that all Christian representatives who took part in the Bkirki Committee to discuss electoral reform, including those of the Free Patriotic Movement, agreed on a law based on small districts.
 
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib Mikati praised the Cabinet’s approval of the new draft electoral law and called on the Parliament to discuss the draft and propose the necessary amendments to it.
 
“Not only did government do its constitutional duties, but it also opened the door for Parliament to discuss the draft and amend it if necessary,” Mikati said Wednesday.
 
“A government that respects separation of powers will uphold any draft electoral law that results from an agreement in Parliament ... In the end, Parliament should have its say,” he added.
 
The Lebanese government approved a draft electoral law Tuesday based on proportional representation and 13 districts for the 2013 polls, cutting the number of districts to almost half of what the current election law stipulates.
 
The current law, based on the 1960 law, was adopted by consensus by rival Lebanese leaders in Doha in 2009.
 
The draft law is likely to be voted down if put before Parliament as the Progressive Socialist Party and the March 14 coalition have agreed to reject any legislation based on proportional representation.
 
Despite his criticism of the proposal, Geagea kept the door open for negotiations on the law. “It is true that the law proposed by the Cabinet is better than the current one but some parts of the law are in complete contradiction with fair representation,” Geagea said.
 
The LF leader also questioned the Cabinet’s intentions in dividing governorates Beirut and south Lebanon into two districts, while dividing all other governorates into three districts.
 
“Yes, proportional representation could have worked, but not with 13 districts, with 15 districts,” Geagea said.
 
Under the Cabinet’s plan, Beirut and south Lebanon would be divided into two electoral districts, while the Bekaa, north Lebanon and Mount Lebanon would each be divided into three.
 
The Cabinet also decided to dedicate an additional three Christian seats and three Muslim seats for Lebanese expatriates, a move Geagea criticized as disregarding expatriates’ connections to their towns and villages in Lebanon.
 
“Our main goal in allowing the expatriates to take part in the polls was to increase their participation in the country’s politics and the day-to-day life of their hometowns but Cabinet has decided to portray the expatriates as expatriates and not Lebanese,” he added.
 
Hours after Cabinet’s approval of the draft law, ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri said it was directed against the majority of the Lebanese, vowing to block the endorsement of the law in Parliament.
 
Also criticizing the proposal, PSP leader Walid Jumblatt said it would have been better for Cabinet to discuss a new electoral law in the presence of a strong, sovereign state.
 
“It would have been better to discuss this law calmly in the presence of a sovereign state that has authority over all its territories and in the presence of a state that possesses the decision of war and peace,” he told An-Nahar.
 
In an interview with MTV Wednesday, Metn MP Sami Gemayel said that the approved draft law went contrary to what had been agreed between Christian officials in the Bkirki Committee, adding that Parliament would definitely vote against it.
 
“This law would not pass in Parliament ... Where is the credibility of the Free Patriotic Movement? After a number of meetings in the past six months, they [the FPM] have acted as if nothing has happened,” Gemayel said.
 
For his part, Chouf MP Marwan Hamadeh said the draft law stood no chance in Parliament.
 
“It will never pass, it will hit a wall of a majority in the Parliament against it,” Hamadeh said in an interview with Voice of Lebanon radio station.
 
Beirut MP Ammar Houri said Cabinet was attempting to instigate strife with its draft law. “The electoral law that the government approved is a law for strife leading to a civil war and it’s a law that represents Iran’s supreme leader and Hezbollah,” Houri said.
 
Batroun MP Boutros Harb called on President Michel Sleiman to propose amendments to the draft law before referring it to Parliament.
 
“If sent to the Parliament in its present form, the draft electoral law would create a sharp sectarian divide,” he said.
 
Harb also warned against using the approved draft electoral law as a tool to postpone the upcoming parliamentary elections. “I fear that this coalition allied with Iran and the Syrian regime will give the Lebanese a choice between holding parliamentary elections based on the approved law or not holding elections,” Harb said.