Beirut: Hezbollah “mourned” the law format proposed by the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) as a carefully planned meeting held on Sunday evening at the prime minister’s home failed to achieve a breakthrough, Al Joumhouria newspaper reported.
The PSP plan, which called for a hybrid electoral law for Lebanon’s upcoming parliamentary elections, was discussed by Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil (Amal Party), Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil (Free Patriotic Movement or FPM), Hezbollah secretary-general’s political aide Hussain Khalil, and Hariri’s chief of staff Nader Hariri, in the presence of the premier.
The well-informed daily affirmed that the interlocutors failed to reach common ground after Bassil insisted that his option is the best for Christians because it alone ensures just representation, although both Khalils said no.
Hezbollah reiterated that it would only accept proportional representation though as earlier meeting between the prime minister and a PSP delegation led by Taymur Junblatt, and which included minister Ayman Shuqeir as well as deputies Ghazi Aridi and Wael Abu Faour, was equally inconclusive, when the Druze stressed the necessity to preserve national unity and not succumb to sectarian schemes.
Walid Junblatt, who recently turned the PSP leadership over to his son Taymur, resorted to Twitter to affirm that “If the PSP’s format is considered a waste of time, then the sectarian qualification format harms national unity and the Future Movement”, in reaction to the “sectarian qualification” format proposed by Bassil.
For his part, Hezbollah deputy Mohammad Raad wondered what the criterion was to allow candidates to run for the “elections according to the proportional and winner-takes-all system proposed by the PSP? ... It is a waste of time as well as procrastination”, he concluded.
The last parliamentary elections in Lebanon were held in 2009 and the legislature extended its own mandate on two separate occasions.
