Tasnim – Lebanese President Michel Aoun hailed a new voting system approved last year by the Arab country’s parliament that replaced majoritarian mechanisms with proportional ones and called for the quick formation of the new government after Sunday’s vote.


Speaking to BBC Arabic Saturday, on the eve of parliamentary elections, Aoun praised the new proportional voting system in Lebanon and said it will pave the way for the simultaneous and more accurate representation of majorities and minorities, and subsequently, a parliament that will ensure internal stability.

The new elections come with a set of complicated new rules designed to move Lebanon towards a proportionally representative system for the first time since 2009, allowing space for more independents and reducing the power of establishment blocs formed by the country’s multiconfessional political system.

He further expressed the hope that after Sunday’s parliamentary elections, the formation of the new government would take place as soon as possible and in compliance with the constitution.

Polling booths opened in Lebanon on Sunday morning for the country’s first parliamentary election in nine years.

Getting a new government in place quickly would reassure investors of Lebanon’s economic stability after donors pledged $11 billion in soft loans for a capital investment program last month, in return for fiscal and other reforms.

Lebanese are closely watching the performance of Prime Minister Sa’ad al-Hariri’s Future Movement party and the Arab country’s Hezbollah resistance movement.