BEIRUT, May 14: With two weeks left until the start of general election, Lebanon’s parliament speaker said on Saturday it was too late to change electoral rules Christians complain will favour Muslims at the ballot box. “After the elections have been called parliament takes on a caretaker role. For me, any amendment to the law or new election law falls outside this,” said Nabih Berri, a Shia with close ties to Syria, who is well-served by the existing law.
“The results are coming soon, how can we go back and ruin the whole process from start to finish?” Lebanon’s anti-Syrian opposition is unravelling along sectarian lines as the first polls without a direct Syrian presence for 33 years approach. Christian leaders, opposed to Syria, have slammed the existing electoral law, designed in 2000 to help Syria’s allies win seats in a house they now dominate.
With Syria ending its 29-year military and intelligence presence last month, even some Christian loyalists have turned against the law, which carves the country into a mixture of smaller and larger electoral districts. Influential Christian bishops say the law puts their community at a disadvantage in large voting areas dominated by Muslims and want small constituencies they say are fairer.
Some Christian politicians have suggested polls be delayed so a new law can be adopted. Prime Minister Najib Mikati vowed on Friday that the polls would go ahead on time under the 2000 law, but tried to allay Christian concerns by suggesting some constituencies be amended.
But Mr Berri said carving the country up into small districts contravened the Taif Accord, which ended the 1975-1990 civil war. The Taif Accord divides parliament’s 128 seats in half between Muslims and Christians but stipulates large constituencies.
“It will not advance Lebanon at all but will only give us 19 sectarian states or statelets,” Mr Berri told reporters after declaring two joint lists with Hezbollah for the south.
“If the 2000 law is sick then the small districts are death.”
BEIRUT POLLS: The registration deadline for the first round of elections in Beirut passed at midnight on Friday, with 51 candidates signed up to contest 19 seats.
The anti-Syrian opposition is almost certain to sweep polls in the capital on May 29, on a ticket led by Saad al Hariri.
It was the Feb 14 assassination of his father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri, which prompted the anti-Syrian protests and intense world pressure that finally forced Syria to go.
Some Christian politicians, who lacked the parliamentary weight to reject the 2000 law, have even raised the possibility of a Christian boycott unless the rules are changed. Even President Emile Lahoud, a Maronite loyal to Syria, opposes the law and urged Mr Berri to call a parliament session to discuss other possible formulations. But Mr Berri, whose joint ticket with Hezbollah guerillas is likely to win all 23 seats in the south, has refused to allow a vote on any other law.
More than 20 election observers arrived in Lebanon on Saturday, amid world pressure to hold the elections on time. On Friday, chief European Union observer Jose Salafranca landed in Lebanon, where he will head a 100-strong team. —Reuters
