By DPA,
Beirut : A committee formed Saturday in Doha from six members of the Lebanese rivals has agreed on adopting a new election law, DPA learned from a delegate.
“The committee has mainly agreed on adopting Lebanon’s 1960 electoral law with some amendments regarding the city of Beirut,” a Lebanese delegate at the talks in Qatar said.
Lebanon has been a parliamentary democracy since the promulgation of the Lebanese constitution in 1926.
The first parliamentary elections were held in 1927, and except for gaps during the World War II and the 1975-90 civil war, they were held on a fairly regular four-year basis.
Throughout the past 80 years the election system has remained a majoritarian first-past-the-post system in multiple-member districts.
Seats in each district are specified for candidates from particular religious communities, but all voters in each district vote for all seats.
There were virtually no regulations on campaign finance and media, and the ministry of interior managed the election process.
There have been post-war elections after Lebanon’s civil war in 1975-1990 civil war, of which there have been four so far – 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2005.
Lebanon has been without a president since November 2007 when pro- Syrian Emile Lahoud ended his term.