Daily Star - Sleiman Pleased With Electoral Reform

BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman said he was pleased on Thursday with the Cabinet’s decision to adopt a proportional representation system for the June municipal elections.
Sleiman also voiced hope that the Parliament would adopt all of Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud’s proposed amendments to the municipal electoral law, adding that these reforms could also be adopted in the parliamentary electoral law.
“Applying a proportional-representation system is the first step toward reform,” the president told his visitors.
The Cabinet approved on Wednesday the adoption of major reforms to the municipal electoral law, including embracing proportional representation in all districts and the direct election of mayors and their deputies from the people.
The adoption of those reforms along with a 20 percent female quota and pre-printed ballots earlier this month followed numerous rounds of discussions among government members ahead of the election scheduled for June 2010.
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun on Thursday stressed that the content of the municipal electoral law was more important than the elections date, but clarified that his party does not want to cancel the polls.
“Our popularity is not declining at all like some are screaming,” Aoun told a news conference after the weekly meeting of his Change and Reform bloc in Rabieh.
“My remarks were taken out of context last week, I said I don’t agree on elections without reforms, but there is a parliamentary majority, and if they want the election, I don’t have the ability to stop it on my own.”
“We will prepare a reform plan for every town and we invite everyone to cooperate with us. Whatever the reform plan, everyone must be cooperative in implementing it, and we will engage positively with all of those who want to cooperate with us,” he added.
Aoun said proportional representation may serve the principle of proper representation but not the issue of municipal services. “One municipality in Beirut can’t offer services to all people equally, and it should be divided like the Paris Municipality,” he added.
Aoun’s proposal to split Beirut into three electoral districts faces resistance from Premier Saad Hariri’s Future Movement who want to keep the capital as a single electoral entity.
Also commenting on the issue Thursday, Labor Minister Boutros Harb said the homogeneity of municipal councils would be lost if the proportional representation system is implemented for the June municipal elections.
“Municipalities are local councils meant to tackle developmental affairs, therefore a homogeneous team that can implement its proposals should be in charge,” he added.
I support adopting such a system for the parliamentary elections, Harb said, but added that he opposed implementing proportional representation for the municipal elections until gaps are filled in the electoral law.
However, Harb said that he would defend the proportional representation system since he is committed to the decision of his fellow Cabinet members.
Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan issued a statement on Thursday calling the Cabinet’s decision to adopt a proportional representation system for municipal elections the first step toward national and political reform.
“Reform starts with correct public representation,” he said.
He added that the decision helps separate purely political issues from national ones and allows Lebanese to determine their affairs.
Meanwhile, Minister of State Mona Ofeish told An-Nahar newspaper in an interview on Thursday that she opposed the cabinet’s decision to apply a 20-percent women’s quota in the June municipal elections.
“This is [an example] of positive discrimination. However, it is a step toward promoting women’s rights,” she said.
She also called on all Lebanese women to form a lobby to prove their qualifications as well as to persevere and attain senior posts. She said Lebanese women are credible and qualified and called on Parliament to adopt a women’s quota too. – The Daily Star