BEIRUT: Interior Minister Marwan Charbel’s electoral reform law draft failed to win the confidence of many politicians and activists at the first major discussion of his proposal Monday.At a conference at Beirut’s Phoenicia InterContinental Hotel organized by the Interior Ministry and UNDP, participants debated the details of Charbel’s proposal – released in October of last year – that calls for the 2013 parliamentary elections to be based on a system of proportional representation.

According to the law’s drafters, a proportional electoral law would ensure a more effective representation of Lebanese voters than is provided by the current winner-takes-all system in which an electoral list that receives at least 51 percent of the vote wins all the seats in a district.

Elections under proportional representation would allocate seats to lists based on the percentage of total votes they receive. If it wins 51 percent of the vote, a 10-member electoral list, for example, would receive five or six of the seats in its district, depending on the number of voters there.

Previous attempts at electoral reform have been largely unsuccessful. The government-appointed National Commission for a New Electoral Law, known as the Boutros Commission, released a draft law in 2006 that proposed major changes to the electoral system.

The Boutros Commission called for a mixed electoral law, in which 77 of Parliament’s 128 members would be elected by winner takes all, and the remaining 51 members would be elected by proportional representation.

The current electoral law is an amended version of pre-Civil War 1960 legislation.

Several activists and politicians told The Daily Star that effective implementation of proportional representation would depend on the size of the districts. The larger the district, they said, the more effective the representation.

Charbel’s law gives several options for district size – all are larger than provided for in the current system.

Some at the conference commented that while Charbel’s draft law offers some solutions to problems with the country’s ailing electoral system, key details from the Boutros Commission’s law, which Charbel inherited from his predecessor, former Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud, are missing.

Speaking at the conference, Kesrouan MP Farid Khazen said that proportional representation might be a popular idea, but the law’s details need to be fleshed out.

“The devil is in the details of the proportional representation proposal,” Khazen said.

According to Khazen, the draft law should clearly stipulate the powers of the Supervisory Commission on Electoral Reform, which was first set up and used in 2009. The MP said clarification was necessary about whether the SCEC is an observing body or one that can monitor and take measures against violators of electoral law.

“What kind of independent commission [do] political parties in the country want? Do they want a commission that only helps in the hard work of election day? Or [do they want] an effective commission that would help improve the standards of the election?” Khazen asked, addressing Charbel.

Like the Boutros draft, Charbel’s proposal would allow Lebanese expatriates to participate in the upcoming 2013 elections.

According to Article 111 of Charbel’s draft, the Interior Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry would coordinate in asking all Lebanese expatriates to register their names at either their respective embassies or consulates.

The draft sets Nov. 20 of the year before an election as the deadline for expatriates to register.

Metn MP Sami Gemayel criticized this, saying it is risky to separate the way Lebanese who live in the country and Lebanese who live outside are registered with the government.

“By registering their names at the embassies, the expatriates might lose their right to vote in Lebanon,” Gemayel warned.

Gemayel also called on Charbel to amend the draft law to lower the legal voting age from 21 to 18, as was called for in the Boutros draft.

“Apart from the legal voting age, another right not mentioned within this proposal is the right of military personnel to vote on election day,” Gemayel said. Currently, active members of the military and other security personnel are not permitted to vote.

“Why should the military personnel, who are risking their lives for the safety of this nation, not have the right to vote?” the lawmaker asked.

Charbel’s law also calls for each list to include 30 percent for candidates of the minority gender. This means that if 70 percent of a list’s candidates are men, 30 percent must be women – and vice versa.

According to longtime electoral reform activist Gilbert Doumit, the draft has some positive elements but is still lacking. “The draft law fails to establish an independent commission to manage the electoral process,” he said, adding that in most democratic countries elections are administered by independent commissions.

There is still time for officials to agree on a new electoral law, but many at the conference were skeptical that an agreement will be reached before the Lebanese return to the polls in 2013. Another proposal that is drawing attention has been backed by Maronite and Orthodox leaders. This plan calls for a single electoral district, with proportional representation within each sect.

“There is still no commitment from any political party to these reforms,” Doumit said.