By Naharnet

Lebanese Forces leader Samir
Geagea announced Monday that a “middle-ground” solution will be reached
regarding the stalled electoral law. “We will end up with a hybrid electoral law, half of
which is based on the winner-takes-all system and the other half on
proportional representation, and this is what we are working on together
with the other parties because it’s a solution that satisfies most
parties,” Geagea said in an interview with Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath
television.

“We and our allies have a lot of cards and we will never
accept an extension of the current parliament’s term or parliamentary
elections under the 1960 law,” Geagea added. Speaker Nabih Berri and Interior Minister Nouhad
al-Mashnouq have recently warned that the country seems to be heading to
parliamentary elections under the controversial 1960 electoral law due
to the parties’ failure to agree on a new law.

Hizbullah has repeatedly called for an electoral law
fully based on proportional representation but other political parties,
especially al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party,
have rejected the proposal, arguing that Hizbullah’s weapons would
prevent serious competition in the Iran-backed party’s strongholds. Mustaqbal, the LF and the PSP have meanwhile proposed a
hybrid electoral law that mixes the proportional representation and the
winner-takes-all systems. Berri has also proposed a hybrid law.

The country has not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending its own mandate. The 2009 polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the next elections are scheduled for May 2017. Lebanon