A small election district is best in a “sectarian country like Lebanon,” according to Tripoli MP Omar Karami.

The former prime minister weighed in on the election law debate during a meeting in Tripoli with Beirut MP Mohammed Qabbani.

Karami was also responding to Speaker Nabih Berri’s suggestion to use proportional representation in the 2005 round for roughly half of the legislature’s 128 seats.

“I’ve been involved in elections for 40 years,” Karami said, “and in my opinion, sound representation in a sectarian country like Lebanon will not be based on proportional representation, and not on these theories that are proposed, but on a election law based on small districts.”

Karami added that fair elections required an election law that protected the public from “money, pressure and security agencies.”