Moussa may return to Beirut for yet another mediation bid
Maronite Patriarch voices objection to the 1960 electoral law
As Arab League chief Amr Moussa called on Wednesday for solidarity and national reconciliation to overcome Lebanon”s political crisis, and opposition MP Ali Hassan Khalil said Moussa and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri agreed on renewing the dialogue between the feuding parliamentary majority and opposition.
Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra said on Wednesday that Moussa”s return to Beirut would be possible in light of the results of the Arab foreign ministers” meeting in Cairo.
Meanwhile, Lebanon”s Council of Maronite Bishops voiced its anger over the intentional slowdown in electing a new president for Lebanon.
The bishops said in a statement that “only electing a president would put Lebanon back on the path of progress and prosperity.” The bishops also criticized the parties for putting the interests of foreign countries ahead of national interests.
Parliament is scheduled to elect a new president on March 11, after 15 previously scheduled sessions were delayed by the absence of consensus.
Meanwhile, March 14 Forces MP Ghattas Khoury said that the alleged “new ideas” to end Lebanon”s crisis were nothing but Syrian ideas.
Berri said earlier that he had discussed in a telephone conversation with Moussa new ideas to end the crisis.
Local newspapers on Tuesday said that Lebanon”s parliamentary majority had turned down Syrian President Bashar Assad”s three-point plan for a solution in Lebanon.
Assad reportedly proposed to Moussa a slightly different alternative to the recent Arab League initiative on Lebanon.
Assad”s plan calls for the election of Lebanese Armed Forces commander General Michel Suleiman as president, the formation of a caretaker government, and the holding of early parliamentary elections under the electoral law of 1960.
Sources from the ruling coalition said Assad”s proposal was rejected because it contradicts the Arab League initiative.
The Arab initiative, adopted in Cairo last month, posits the election of Suleiman, the formation of a national unity government and the drafting of a new electoral law for the May 2009 parliamentary elections.
Lebanon”s feuding parties agreed to elect Suleiman president but remain divided over the make-up of the next government and the shape of a new electoral law.
Both the opposition and the ruling coalition said that they supported an electoral law based on the qada election district, but the March 14 Forces voiced their objection to adopting the 1960 formula. The 1960 law is based on the qada, but today”s population distribution differs from that of 1960.
The governing coalition says it favors a qada-based law that would adopt smaller constituencies, while the opposition prefers to stick to the 1960 formula.
Berri said earlier that the opposition was ready to approve any law that adopted larger constituencies than the 1960 law or replicated the 1960 legislation.
“If smaller constituencies were adopted, we will end up seeing Muslims electing Muslims and Christians electing Christians,” Berri said last week.
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said earlier that the ruling coalition had turned down the 1960 law without suggesting an alternative.
Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir also voiced his objection to the 1960 electoral law, arguing that it is no more applicable. However, opposition Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh accused Sfeir of changing his mind over adopting the 1960 law.
“I was surprised by what I heard from the patriarch regarding the electoral law,” Franjieh said.
“After 20 years of struggle to adopt the 1960 formula, Sfeir suddenly changed his mind,” he added.
Franjieh accused the March 14 Forces of misleading the patriarch by trying to convince him that the 1960 law did not best serve Christian interests.
“In fact, the ruling coalition – namely Christian members of the March 14 Forces – are two-faced when it comes to the issue of a new electoral law,” the Marada leader said.
“They pretend to support a law based on the qada, but their main goal is to obstruct the adoption of a new law, thus taking us back to the 2000 electoral law, which they prefer the most,” Franjieh added.