MGLE01: ELECTORAL LAW REFORM COMMISSION FINISHING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIRUT 000632 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/WERNER/SINGH LONDON FOR TSOU PARIS FOR ZEYA E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2016 TAGS: PGOV KDEM KMPI EAID LE SUBJECT: MGLE01: ELECTORAL LAW REFORM COMMISSION FINISHING WORK REF: BEIRUT 594 BEIRUT 00000632 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman. Reason: Sections 1.4 (b ) and (d). SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) The national commission charged with reforming the electoral law is expected to submit a draft law to the Prime Minister within a week. It will incorporate a number of reforms: an independent electoral commission, quotas for female candidates, a lowering of the voting age, and regulation of mass media and campaign finance. The one issue remaining is the number, shape, and size of electoral districts. Commission members may not be able to reach a consensus here. Concerned that the districting issue alone will dominate and distort public debate, two commissioners identified the need for a media strategy to build public awareness about electoral reform. Otherwise, entrenched opponents of change may set the terms of the debate themselves. Even prior to the draft law's public unveiling, many influential figures are already starting to form opinions about it. End summary. AGREEMENT ON EVERYTHING BUT DISTRICTS -------------- ¶2. (C) In separate meetings, two of the most active members of the commission, Ziad Baroud and Paul Salem, told us that they and their colleagues have reached agreement on almost all of the main elements of a draft electoral law. Specifically, there was agreement on an independent electoral commission, a quota for women (in this draft, the quota applies only to spaces on candidate lists rather than to actual seats in Parliament),regulation of the use of campaign finance and mass media during elections, out-of-country voting, and lowering the voting age to 18. (Baroud pointed out that this last matter would require a constitutional amendment.) ¶3. (C) The commission has sought to adhere to a deadline for completing its work by the end of February and submitting a draft law, plus voluminous supporting documentation, to the Prime Minister. With a national dialogue conference launched on March 2 by Speaker of Parliament Berri (septel) upstaging those plans, Salem on March 1 told us that the commission would likely submit their proposed law within "about a week." �A; ¶4. (C) The remaining issue to be resolved is the number of electoral districts and their boundaries. The most likely scheme is one that creates nine districts. In this case, the governorates of the North, the South, the Biqa'a Valley, and Mount Lebanon would each comprise two electoral districts. Beirut would remain a single district, but would consist of three sub-districts. To be elected from Beirut, a candidate would need a sufficient number of votes from his or her home sub-district as well as from Beirut as a whole, according to Baroud. (Comment: Such a scheme would be an attempt to address Christian concerns that Christian MPs elected from Beirut would be the choice of the capital's Muslim majority rather than of their own communities. End comment.) ¶5. (C) Baroud said he preferred a districting scheme that divided each governorate other than Beirut into three districts rather than two, creating a total of 13 districts. There was another plan that further divided Beirut into two districts, for a total of 14. There was a possibility that commission members simply would not reach consensus on the districting issue, according to Baroud. ¶6. (C) Salem held out the possibility that, short of consensus among its members over a districting scheme, the commission might submit a draft law that left out the matter of districting altogether. He pointed out that in many other countries, politicians draw the boundaries of electoral districts; the boundaries are not something codified in the law. Salem said that, should the commission wind up avoiding this eagerly anticipated question, it would need to be prepared to deal with, and dissipate, the widespread "disappointment" that would greet the draft law. ANTICIPATING RESISTANCE BEIRUT 00000632 002.2 OF 003 -------------- ¶7. (C) Baroud anticipated that there would be resistance to the law in any case, regardless of what it said or did not say about districts. This was particularly the case in the Christian community, where hopes have been pinned on small electoral districts contiguous with the boundaries of the "qada" administrative unit. (Comment: The theory is that "qada"-sized districts would produce MPs more representative of their home districts, rather than accessories of non-Christian "zu'ama" -- political bosses who monopolize leadership and representation within the regions and confessional groups -- such as Sa'ad Hariri, Walid Jumblatt, and Nabih Berri. End comment.) ¶8. (C) Salem described two opposing tendencies among commission members. The first -- presumably the one Salem identified with -- was forward-looking and reform-oriented, unfazed by the problem of relatively large districts. The second tendency was "fearful," based on a presumption that the country is not ready for dramatic changes in the way it conducts elections. According to this view, Lebanon's communal groups, particularly the Christians, having failed to understand the point of the draft law, would reject it. Both he and Baroud noted that a new law would have the power to create a new political class and where thus also face opposition from entrenched political elites. ¶9. (C) The way the commission's draft law will incorporate the concept of proportionality is described septel. As noted in reftel, Minister of Telecommunications Marwan Hamadeh, among others, has foreseen serious problems introducing proportionality in Lebanon. PUBLIC AWARENESS KEY -------------- ¶10. (C) Baroud expressed frustration with how public discussion of electoral reform has focused until now almost exclusively on how electoral districts are drawn. He predicted that making the case for relatively large electoral districts plus proportionality would be a tough sell, and would require a media strategy developed in advance, something that could be activated within "twenty-four hours" of the draft law's submission to the Prime Minister. Salem noted that there was little awareness of the electoral reform issue among the general public, while those civil society groups gearing up to participate in the debate were not particularly interested in the issue of districting. SOME REACTIONS ALREADY -------------- ¶11. (C) Word of what the draft law may look like is getting around and, even before the draft law's public unveiling, strong opinions have already formed. "Emir" Hares Chehab, former head of the Maronite League and confidante of the Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, told us that the Patriarch was "comfortable" with proportionality. At the same time, however, the Patriarch prefers the smallest possible electoral districts -- his first choice would be 128 districts, one per member of Parliament. Two or three districts per governorate would not be acceptable to him, according to Chehab. ¶12. (C) MPs Farid El Khazen and Ghassan Moukhayber, two members of Michel Aoun's parliamentary bloc, told us that they supported most of the elements of the coming draft law that they were aware of, including the independent electoral commission, regulation of money and media, and lowering the voting age. The relatively large districts being considered by the commission would be a "disaster," however, according to El Khazen. The result would be "competition between sects, not within sects," he warned. ¶13. (U) Speaking to a large audience on March 1, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Ja'ja' called the work of the electoral commission a "red line," because it will form "the foundation of political life for future decades." If the law is unfair, unjust, and not in conformity with the 1989 Ta'if Agreement, Ja'ja' warned, "we will not accept it." ¶14. (C) MP Robert Ghanem -- who, as chairman of the Parliament's Justice and Administration Committee, will play BEIRUT 00000632 003.2 OF 003 a key role in deliberation over the draft law once it is submitted by the cabinet -- acknowledged that the Parliament was made up of people who had benefited from the electoral law currently in effect. They seemingly had little incentive to change it. At the same time, Ghanem said, there is now real debate in Parliament unconstrained by Syrian influence, and that will make a difference. FELTMAN