by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer gulf news  – Beirut: Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament and Amal Party leader
Nabih Berri has called on political elites to approve his electoral law
proposal, according to a report published in daily Al Akhbar on
Saturday. The pro-Hezbollah newspaper clarified that the proposal “will
not be valid after May 15” when the next parliament session is scheduled
to begin. The proposal By Berri calls for “electing” a senate
under a sectarian voting system, and a parliament under an electoral law
fully based on proportional representation, a plank rejected by the
leading groups. The proposed Senate, which was envisaged by the
1989 Taif Accords that ended the 15-years long Lebanese Civil War, would
include 64 members, divided equally between Muslims and Christians and
would allocate its presidency to the Druze community. Foreign Minister
Jibran Bassil, who is also the head of the Free Patriotic Movement,
insisted that the Senate ought to be led by a Christian. Druze leaders,
led by Walid Junblatt, vowed that Taif Accords meant to allocate the
Senate chairmanship to their community.

Berri’s formula
anticipated such a disagreement and recommended that the Senate
chairmanship be allocated to the Greek Orthodox community, with the
Druze being given either the deputy speaker or the deputy premier post.
It is unclear whether these options are acceptable to those most
affected and their partners, with the Speaker declaring that his “offer
ends in a few days”. He added: “By then I will no more accept what I do
now. I have relinquished some powers of the parliament, which I have
acquired for many years, in order to reach solutions, but it seems some
people do not want a solution”. Proposals to revisit the
anticipated creation of a Senate at this time further complicated the
search for a new electoral law with the goal to replace the existing
1960 model. The Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil, a top political
aide to Berri, said that the only acceptable proposal after May 15 will
be full-fledged proportional representation, which is rejected by most
constituents.