Electoral system for national legislature
Lebanon
Republic of Lebanon Law No. 25, Parliamentary Elections Law
Article 46
Any individual who meets the conditions of membership in the parliament may run as candidate in any district. However, no one may run for elections in more than one electoral district at the same time.
Article 96
Should one of the ballot papers include a number of candidates exceeding the number of Deputies to be elected, the names of candidates of each confession mentioned first (before the others) shall alone be taken into consideration while counting the votes.
In 2005, the Council of Ministers proposed a draft of a new mixed electoral system. Called the Boutros Commission, “some parliamentary seats would be elected on a majoritarian basis with small constituencies (qadaas, or electoral units) and the remainder on a proportional basis with large constituencies.” However, it was ultimately not adopted for the 2009 elections when various political turmoil led to the shelving of the draft. Ultimately, elections were called under Law No. 25 of 2008 which sought electoral reform but did not lead to a new electoral system.
It is worth noting that since then, a new electoral law was passed in June 2017, replacing the previous system with a proportional representation electoral system in 15 multi-member constituencies. Some of the reasons for the reform include, but are not limited to:
- The granting of a number of parliamentary seats in each district based on a quota with candidates being elected by all voters in a districts (regardless of sect) is seen as unfair and not representative of districts today
- The system is heavily opposed for allowing dominant sects in one district to determine the winner of a seat reserved for a different sect
This new electoral law will have repercussions for the 2018 parliamentary elections.
Sources Used:
Arda Arsenian Ekmekji, Confessionalism and Electoral Reform in Lebanon
