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.”
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.