BEIRUT:
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Wednesday that debating a new election law for
2013 wasn’t in the country’s best interest, downplaying a new, radical proposal
and urging a return to the 1989 Taif Accord.
“I
understand the concerns of all sects, but new proposals for an election law
aren’t connected to a [given] sect itself,” Mikati said. “What appeared in the
so-called ‘Orthodox’ proposal, or what came out of the Bkirki gathering, do not
reflect the views of the sect itself. They’re [the result of] meetings by civil
groups, which put forward some proposals.”
The
prime minister was referring to last week’s meeting at Bkirki by leading
Maronite politicians, who endorsed a discussion of an election law proposal by
the Orthodox Gathering, which calls for each sect to elect its own MPs to
Parliament.
Mikati
was speaking to reporters following his meeting with the Beirut Orthodox
Archbishop of Beirut, Elias Audi. He said that the two discussed developments
in the country, administrative appointments and the parliamentary electoral
law.
“It’s
not in our interest to begin a debate on the election law, because it won’t be
useful,” Mikati said. My advice to all Lebanese is to affirm Taif and implement
it entirely, because any imbalance will take us into the unknown, and no one
wants that.”
The
Taif Accord urges the adoption of the governorate as the electoral district,
along with a reconsideration of the country’s administrative divisions, and
makes no mention of the option of each sect choosing its own lawmakers.
Earlier
Wednesday, Mikati also visited Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai and Greek
Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III Lahham ahead of the Christmas holiday.
After
talks in Bkirki with Rai and his predecessor, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, Mikati
said that their meeting tackled a number of important political issues,
including the electoral law and senior appointments in the civil service.
Mikati’s
Cabinet has yet to endorse high-ranking administrative appointments, such as
the head of the Higher Judicial Council, or a wide range of vacancies in the
diplomatic corps.
The
Orthodox Gathering’s election law proposal also stipulates proportional
representation, and politicians have said a series of meetings will need to be
held to work out further details.
Commenting
on the proposal of the Orthodox Gathering, Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil
said Wednesday that Speaker Nabih Berri supported a discussion of the
proposal’s details.
“We
cannot treat the proposal by rejecting or endorsing it ... this proposal needs
to be discussed starting with the concerns that have been brought up by
Christians who support it and by answering the questions that were raised about
it,” said Khalil.
Speaking
during a meeting with Maronite officials at the headquarters of the Maronite
League, Khalil said that Lebanese shouldn’t hastily condemn a proposal for the
country’s election law. “We shouldn’t rush and say that such a proposal would
cause chaos in the country,” Khalil added.
Meanwhile, former Deputy
Prime Minister Elie Ferzli, an author of the Orthodox Gathering proposal, said
the plan would ensure equality between Christians and Muslims. “We will not
accept that Christians remain followers of non-Christian leaders,” Ferzli told
a morning talk show on LBCI.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Dec-22/157614-mikati-warns-sects-to-tread-carefully-over-election-law.ashx#axzz1k6wYgero
No comments:
Post a Comment