Perhaps not the number one issue in that country at the moment, but also far from irrelevant to efforts to bridge the underlying divisions and deadlocks of Lebanese politics, once things get back to “normal.” Andy Reynolds has some information:
the proposed new election system is parallel. 77 Block Vote seats in 1-6 member districts, 51 list PR seats in 6 districts, with a sort of open (2 vote) list…while under both methods seats have to be allocated back down to the confession/sect/ethnicity and single member seat (or qada)…Yes, its really complex! Perhaps the most complex system I have ever seen. [ellipses in original]
Sounds like a bad combination of the worst features of the current system and the Palestinian system. And complex indeed!
Andy was just there, noting on 25 June that:
Beirut has returned to its status as the ‘Paris of the Mid-East’ and its certainly a vibrant city.
How quickly–and tragically–things have changed.
