Beirut Electoral Law

Beirut electoral law was the main problem in adopting a new electoral law. There were many electoral laws presented in the Doha Dialogue but every one of them was rejected by one side or the other. During the last days, the main problem became the Beiruti Armenians.

In an interview on LBC with Mrs. May Chidiac, Samir Geagea announced his agreement with an electoral law which places the Armenians in the district having a majority of Sunnites. He explained his support to this law by taking into consideration Tashnag’s current alliance since the other law which was proposed (according to what he said) placed the Armenians with the Shiites.

Yesterday, when I was checking some political sites I saw that the Lebanese politicians have agreed and there was an article about the electoral law in Beirut that it has been agreed upon.

The division is as follows:

1. District 1 – Formed of the regions Ashrafieh, Saifi and Rmeil. In this district 5 Christian (Maronite, Room Catholic, Room Orthodox and 2 Armenian) MPs will get elected.
2. District 2 – Formed of the regions Mdawwar, Bashoura and Marfa’. In this district 4 (Sunnite, Shiite and 2 Armenian) MPs will get elected. Armenians have the highest number of voters in this district having few thousands more than Shiites and Sunnites (taken each alone).
3. District 3 – Formed of the regions Ras Beirut, Dar el-Mreise, Mazra’a, Msaytbe, Zqaq Blat and Minet El Hosn. In this district 10 (5 Sunnite, Shiite, Druze, Room Orthodox and 2 Minority*) MPs will get elected. The dominating voters in this district are the Sunnites.

Here is a picture in Arabic explaining the distributions and the number of voters.