Daily Star - Interior Ministry Ready For Municipal Elections - January 4th, 2010

BEIRUT: Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud said Saturday his ministry was ready on the “logistical level” to carry out the municipal election in the spring but stressed that the electoral law for those elections ought to be amended for them to be held. “Certain articles could be amended during a single parliamentary session to hold elections on time,” he said during a news conference in Tripoli following a meeting for security apparatuses in the north Lebanon governorate.
Baroud held the conference to announce that security forces have arrested the members of a major car theft network.
He stressed that security forces, in cooperation with the Lebanese Army, were exerting important security efforts.
Baroud also describing the security situation that Lebanon witnessed on New Year’s Eve as “exemplary.”
Baroud said his ministry was committed to holding the municipal elections on time, adding that preparations were currently under way to make sure that elections could be carried out in May 2010 as scheduled.
The minister added that any postponement of scheduled elections would necessitate the approval of both the Parliament and the Cabinet.
Baroud stressed that he did not possess the authority to force the Cabinet to hold the municipal elections on the agreed upon date.
“My duty is to prepare for those elections,” he said.
In 1998 Lebanon held its first municipal elections in 35 years. These elections are held every five years.
According to a recent study by the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES), the current electoral system used for electing members of municipal councils in Lebanon is known as the “bloc vote” system, the same as is used for parliamentary elections.
In a nutshell, the bloc vote system can be used in multi-member districts, voters have as many votes as there are seats to be elected, the candidates who win the highest number of votes win, and finally voters can vote for candidates from different lists or party affiliations.
Political and public debate has now begun to focus on the possibility of introducing an alternative electoral system for municipal elections. Suggestions have included introducing proportional representation.
The IFES report cites the electoral dominance by one political group as of the major disadvantages of the bloc vote system. It adds that the bloc vote system also leads to the dominance of one group in the municipality, undermining the possibility of accountability and oversight of council members. The adopted electoral system thus undermines public confidence in the credibility of the council, it says.
As with all majoritarian systems, the IFES study argues, the bloc vote system has “systemic limitations in promoting the role of women to be elected,” since no effective quotas can be imposed. – The Daily Star