The Daily Star - Electoral reform must happen, activists say Government has six months to effect changes including female quotas and votes for prisoners - October 28, 2010

BEIRUT: Soldiers must be given the right to participate in elections. The voting age must be lowered to 18. Women should make up at least one-third of electoral lists, which themselves need printing by independent adjudicators.

The government has just sixth months to make good on a promise to implement these and other electoral law reforms, a leading democracy advocate warned Wednesday.

“The Lebanese government promised in November 2009 to complete the Parliament elections draft law in 18 months at most,” said Osama Safa, secretary general of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE). “It is the responsibility of government and all institutions to ensure that this occurs.”

In June 2009, Lebanon held its first independent Parliamentary elections to be conducted on a single day. Although several hundred domestic and international observers were drafted in to monitor election processes, voter fraud was widespread and many polling stations provided facilities which were woefully inadequate, especially for disabled voters.

Even before the Parliamentary vote, the Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform, of which LADE is a member, was pressing for changes to Lebanon’s archaic election laws. May 2010 saw municipal elections held without anticipated violence blighting the four separate voting days. Nevertheless, many breaches of the law were reported at the time.

Safa outlined the pressing issues facing the government and Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud, who has voiced willingness to engage civil society in reform discussions.

“The proportional system of representation ensures a more accurate and fair representation than the [current] majority system,” he said.

In addition to the adoption of pre-printed ballot papers in order to avoid scenes of repeated electoral fraud like those in May, Safa called on the government to adopt a raft of measures to ensure the voting process was fairer overall. Such recommendations included a one-third quota for female candidates on voting lists and the removal of a bar on soldiers participating in elections.
"We believe in the importance of women’s role in political life and in respect with the international conventions signed by Lebanon,” Safa said. “[We also need to] identify clear mechanisms making it easier for disabled persons to run for office or to vote.”

Both recent elections saw several incidents in which disabled voters were turned away by officials at polling stations ill-equipped to get them to electoral booths. In addition, several voting lists for either parliamentary or municipal polls featured not a single female candidate.

“Military men are at the forefront of any conflict and defend Lebanon, therefore they have the right to participate in the parliamentary and municipal elections,” Safa argued.

May’s municipal vote was preceded by a fierce Parliamentary debate over the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18. In spite of pressure from a number of groups, several MPs abstained from voting on the issue, and the age to vote remained at 21.

“Lowering the voting age to 18 years is a fundamental right for youth and it needs no legal or political justifications,” Safa added. “The electoral law is considered the right gateway to any other reform. Therefore, we call on all the concerned parties to take it as a priority instead of putting it on the back burner and leaving it to the last minute in order to get rid of it all together or to put it together hastily just as it was done before.”

It remains to be seen whether reforms mentioned Wednesday will be ratified by the time Lebanon’s next Parliamentary election rolls round in 2013. Baroud is set to hold a fresh round of discussions with reform campaigners in the coming weeks to decide issues concerning lowering voting age and diaspora voting.