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Parliamentary Elections Law No. 25
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Law 25, adopted in September 2008, is the Law on the Election to the Chamber of Deputies. The law establishes 26 electoral districts and the allocation of 128 seats among districts. The law also provides that the 128 seats are distributed equally between Muslim and Christian among eleven confessional groups. The adoption of Law 25 followed a three-year campaign for electoral reform, which included the work of the National Commission for Electoral Law (headed by former minister, Fouad Boutros) which had prepared a draft election law that proposed a new electoral system and important technical improvements to the electoral process.
Law 25 is Lebanon’s fourth law since 1990. The previous election law (adopted in 2000 and used for elections in 2000 and 2005) had been widely criticised for its electoral system and many flawed procedures. It is widely expected that, following parliamentary elections on 7 June 2009, there will be a continued push for electoral reform – specifically a new electoral system, review of electoral district boundaries and the adoption of key measures to protect secrecy of the ballot, the lowering of the voting age to 18 years and the establishment of an independent election administration.
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