What are the motives behind Berri”s call to lower the voting age?
Speaker Nabih Berri has called for a session of Parliament next week to discuss, among other things, a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. It”s a great idea, on its merits. But it”s also a step that will provoke significant reactions – and some pretty fierce opposition – in a time of anxiety about the country”s demographics, particularly in the run-up to an election round.
It”s the kind of a move that makes one wonder whether there is going to be any harmony in the political system, in the wake of the dispute between Berri and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and the coalitions they represent, over the Council of the South, or the memorandum of understanding with the International Tribunal for Lebanon.
Speaker Berri should go back to the history books and think well about such a step. The Fouad Butros-led election commission recommended lowering the voting age as well. But its members were talking about thorough reform. One item on their agenda was proportional representation, unlike today”s winner-take-all system, which in a multi-member district means that 49 percent of the voters might receive zero percent of the seats available. Why isn”t the speaker interested in other reform components – why only lowering the voting age, all of sudden, right now?
These issues were cleared up in Doha last year. Lebanon”s political leaders accepted the qada as an electoral district, based on the 1960 electoral law. Throughout the year, it became apparent that certain other major reform items would not be endorsed for this round.
If the speaker wants to be remembered by history as the statesman who brought Lebanon from 1960 into 2010, he should remember that a process of piecemeal, divisive reform is not the way to go. Otherwise, his call for a session to amend the Constitution will be remembered as a mere campaign ploy, whether to ruin the mood for the next few days in the news cycle, force March 14 to derail the session through a lack of quorum, or strike a deal over other items.
Whatever the reason, it sure doesn”t smell like reform.