Daily Star - Protesters Urge Mps To Lower Voting Age

BEIRUT: NGO workers, civil society campaigners and reform lobby groups gathered in Downtown Beirut on Monday in an attempt to influence Parliament’s session on lowering the voting age in time for June’s Municipal Elections.
Members of the Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform (CCER) banged drums and waved banners at traffic as a steady stream of MPs entered Beirut’s Parliament building.
Omar Abel Samad, 25, said that the government needed to adopt a range of reforms before the next nationwide vote, including holding it on time.
“We want elections to happen on their proper date because all the political blocs are trying to postpone them. It is the citizens’ right to have new municipal elections. Also we are here to insist on our reforms to be introduced into electoral law,” Samad said.
“We have a set of reforms we need to introduce including lowering the voting age, pre-printed ballots, introducing a proportional voting system which is more representative for all citizens in all municipalities.”
Municipal elections are constitutionally required to take place this year, and a parliamentary committee set up to monitor electoral reform has already moved to delay the vote one month in order to implement changes to voting law.
Juli Bou Karroum, who is a member of the CCER as well as the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE), said that proposed reforms were no excuse for delaying elections.
“Reform can happen with the elections on time. It is only because of political decisions. This is to improve our democratic system,” she said. “If we don’t have both [timely elections and a lower voting age] we are not protecting our system. We are violating our constitutional laws. We are in the 21st century and we are not getting the reforms people need.”
Even before the result of today’s parliamentary vote was announced – with 66 MPs abstaining, meaning the voting age will not be lowered, possibly until 2013 – protesters were not pinning much hope on the outcome.
“They (MPs) won’t vote on this today. It’s their responsibility and we are going to hold them accountable,” said Samad. “Young people can fight, be in the army, get married, but they cannot vote because people say they are immature. They can fight for their country but they are too immature to vote for their representatives?”
Karroum was equally pessimistic. “If you see all the TV reports and how politicians are speaking you can assume that it’s not going to pass. But we are here to ask them to adopt the reform. It is needed,” she said.
Several members of the Lebanese Physically Handicapped Union (LPHU) attended Monday’s protest in a bid to raise awareness about disabled access to voting stations across the country.
“We insist that in accordance with law 220, all voting polls should be equipped with facilities enabling disabled voters to vote. Disabled people comprise 10 per cent of the Lebanese population,” said Jihad Ismail, LPHU’s responsible director.
Lina Kasaifi, 24, had recently moved back to Lebanon after working in Canada and echoed Ismail’s comments.
“Abroad is very accessible; there are pavements for disabled people at all universities and public places and over here I don’t see any of that,” she said. “[Parliament] should make the system more accessible for these people.”
Ismail added that CCER believed currently serving members of the Lebanese Armed Forces should also be allowed to vote in municipal and parliamentary votes.
“We call the Parliament to ratify a modern electoral law in cooperation with civil society so that all Lebanese can participate in a free, transparent election,” he said.
Another issue on protesters’ agenda was the diaspora vote, which Christian MPs who abstained from lowering the voting age support, as they believe it would help redress the increase of eligible Muslim voters Lebanon would see should any amendment of article 21 of the Constitution come to pass.
Samad said that the two issues were not linked.
“Politicians link the lowering of the voting age with the voting of the diaspora which is not reasonable,” he said. “Both causes are right but we can’t link one reform with another. It is our right to vote and the Lebanese people outside Lebanon have the right to vote. We need first to lower the voting age.”
Rania Majed, 18, said that people of her age felt marginalized by politicians.
“People here want to vote at 18. We believe we have the right to vote,” she said. “It’s not fair and it’s not right. I don’t know why politicians are scared. They think that their ideas are the only important ones and they don’t listen to us.” – Additional reporting by Wassim Mroueh