BEIRUT: Civil Society groups expressed outrage over a draft electoral law put forth by the Maronite Church and the Orthodox Gathering advocating that each sect elects its own lawmakers, arguing that the plan was backward and consolidated animosity.

While Christian lawmakers discuss a parliamentary electoral law with their Muslim counterparts, officials from civil society groups have pledged to stand against the proposal of the Orthodox Gathering.

“We openly reject Bkirki’s statement and a proposal that is completely against our principles,” said Rabih Kays, program director at the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace.

While electoral laws put forth by the Orthodox Gathering and the Maronite Church were welcomed by many for addressing legitimate concerns about the representation of Christians, others within the Christian community and civil society groups have been critical, saying it would encourage sectarianism in an already much-divided country.

In the last major electoral reform attempt, the government-appointed National Commission for a New Electoral Law, known as the Boutros Commission after its chairman Fouad Boutros, in 2006 released a draft law that proposed major changes to the electoral system.

The law was never adopted, and instead Parliament passed a law in September 2008 that was an amended version of pre-Civil War 1960 legislation.

A proposal on the electoral law approved by Maronite leaders during a meeting at the seat of the Maronite Church in Bkirki last week revived debate on electoral law yet again.

In a statement following a meeting between Maronite MPs and Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai at Bkirki, Maronite leaders from the rival March 14 and March 8 political blocs announced their support for an electoral law that would unite the existing 26 electoral districts into a single countrywide district.

This proposal was championed earlier this year by the newly established Orthodox Gathering, which called on the government to allow every Lebanese sect to exclusively vote for their own representatives.

In its current form, the Maronite and Orthodox proposal call for a single electoral district, with proportional representation within each sect. An Orthodox voter, for example, would choose among a number of 14-member lists, equal to the community’s allotment of seats in Parliament.

“The agreement was a positive one because it finally opened the door for real discussion on a new election law in the country that would achieve equality between Christians and Muslims,” Metn MP Sami Gemayel told The Daily Star.

The Kataeb (Phalange) MP said that demands for more effective and equal representation among Christians and Muslims have been ongoing for at least 20 years.

The post-Civil War Taif Accord equally divided 128 parliamentary seats between Christians and Muslims.

“We have been working to return the equal rights of Christians for 20 years now ... I hope there are no Lebanese that are against equal rights,” said Gemayel.

Although the Bkirki statement took many by surprise, the proposed law is not new. Many Christian officials, among them Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Franjieh and former Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir have long been critical of a system that they say marginalizes Christian voters.

According to critics of the version of the 1960 law currently in effect, non-Christian voters have effectively been selecting most Christian MPs. Candidates are elected to Parliament if they belong to a list that gains the majority of votes.

This means there is potential for candidates to be elected who are not preferred by the majority of voters.

But critics of the Orthodox Gathering’s proposal say that such a law would further divide the country along sectarian lines.

Former Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud, who has been involved in electoral reform efforts, said the Orthodox Gathering’s proposal is more than a legal change.

“We are no longer simply speaking of an electoral law,” he told The Daily Star. “The proposal is suggesting a change in the entire system for the first time since 1990.”

“If the majority of the Lebanese support such a change, so be it,” Baroud said, adding that its approval would require agreement among all Lebanese political leaders.

According to Baroud, previous reform efforts have focused mainly on choosing between majoritarian and proportional representation systems, and how districts should be drawn.

“I think the majoritarian system is the real problem,” said Baroud, a Maronite, adding that a lack of proportional representation had resulted in ineffective representation for both Christians and non-Christians.

“What I am afraid of today is that this [Orthodox Gathering] proposal would further complicate matters and once again the Lebanese will hold the 2013 elections based on the 1960 law,” said Baroud.