The Center for Human Rights of the Faculty of Law at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) concluded a series of conferences organized on Human Rights with a final conference, on April 3, 2013, given by the former minister Mr. Ziad Baroud on “The Right to Vote”. The Associate Dean of the Faculty, Fr. Dr. Talal Hachem, and numerous USEK students and professors attended.
Mr. Baroud started his conference by thanking the Associate Dean of the Faculty for inviting him and for his interest in the election. Then he talked about the right to vote, linking it to Human Rights stating that “The introduction of the constitution added in 1990 within the constitutional amendments pointed out clearly that Lebanon is an active and effective member of the United Nations Organization, and is bound to charters as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thus, the right to vote is a fundamental right.” Then he wondered “How can we protect the regularity of the elections?”
He continued by asserting that holding the elections on time has nothing to do with the 1960 law. The deadline for standing to the elections ends on April 10, and as we already passed the official deadline for assigning the members of the monitoring committee it is now impossible to hold the elections on time for executive, logistic and technical reasons.
He added: “On the executive level, we entered in a crucial period and I think that it is not possible to hold the elections on time, and if they do not take place before June 20, extending the parliament’s mandate needs a law first because it cannot take place following the government’s decision. The constitutionality of such a law can be questioned, especially if the extension was not justified… Such a law can be justified in only one case: the adoption of a new electoral law before June 20. As a result, the government will need a certain period of time to adapt its preparations to the new law; hence, it will be possible to extend the mandate of the parliament for 3 months. This is called the “technical extension” and its constitutionality cannot be questioned.”
Mr. Baroud considered that the unlikelihood to extend the mandate of parliament and to neglect to adopt a new electoral law is worse as this would create a political void, because after June 20, the parliament will become illegal. He added: “What is happening is extremely dangerous, we are running out of time and it is necessary to redress the situation to avoid political void.” He indicated that “We are in a sort of a vicious cycle because the deputies set the electoral law and then run for the elections that are usually held according to a law that suits them… I support the state of rights not the state of law, because rights are stable and law can be fabricated or bad.”
Afterwards, the floor was opened for debate and Mr. Baroud concluded enthusiastically that he supports the proportional electoral system since it guarantees the right representation.