The Question

This question is posted by ACE on behalf of Sara El-Yafi.

Dear friends, 

We believe that the ultimate authority of government comes from the people; that is the inalienable democratic right of modern human beings. In light of the recent presidential stalemate and the years of political impotence in our country, our quest for direct suffrage speaks loudest today; we the people must choose our head of state in direct democratic elections to regain our power and freedom. 

The current presidential paralysis has lasted since May 25th 2014 and counting... Six years ago, the presidential void lasted for six months, exploded in a mini-civil war and only ended after the “bloc leaders” were taken to Qatar to be “reconciled” with the interference of a regional power. The "Doha Agreement" was yet another regional and international settlement in which the Lebanese people had no say.  This year, history should not repeat itself. We, the people, should wish to intervene this time instead of any external power to vote in our head of state. Isn't that our most intuitive, basic right? 

In order to better campaign for this right, here is a set of questions that we need to answer about the mechanism that would need to be adopted for this democratic change. I would very much appreciate you weighing in on it with your invaluable expertise, as well as with any additional insight I may have missed. 

I look forward to our discussion.  

All my best, 

Sara 

--- 

1. One-round or two-round elections? 

In the world today, there are two principal voting methods for electing presidents: 

a) One-round plurality elections whereby the candidate with the most votes wins. 

b) Two-round majority runoff elections whereby an absolute majority is required on the first ballot, and if no candidate is elected on that first ballot, a second round is held, opposing the two candidates with the most votes on the first ballot, and thus, the person with the most votes on the second ballot is elected. (FYI majority runoff is used in 49 democratic countries for the (direct) election of the president, and one-round plurality is used in 20 countries.) 

Option b seems the more natural road to take as it has been shown that "strategic desertion" of candidates (i.e. when people vote only for strong candidates and desert weak candidates) is less likely to happen in a two-round election. 

2. How do people qualify for the Presidential race and become official candidates? 

Example: Each candidate requires certified signatures of at least 10,000 voters spread equally over three Governorates? Or each candidate requires signatures from 10% of the voters of at least 50% of the districts of every Governorate?  Or... 

3. Who verifies the validity of the signatures? 

Could an Independent Electoral Foreign Commission oversee the validity of the said signatures? The same commission that counts the ballots? 

4. Once the candidates are selected and the first electoral round commences, are the elections based on a one person-one vote cross nationwide regardless of districts, governorates, confession and geographic residence? If so, does every person only name one candidate? 

5. In case it is a two-round majority run-off, how many votes are needed for the candidates to clear the first round? 

If no one clears more than 50% of the votes from the first round, will the top two candidates go on to compete in the second and final round? or would it be anyone who clears a certain percentage, say 30% (in other words, the first 3)?  

6. In case it is a two-round majority run-off, how much time separates round one from round two? 

7. What is the exact role of the Independent Electoral (Foreign or Local) Commission? Who appoints them? If we opt for a mixed commission, how many are Lebanese and how many are foreign and what are their qualifications? Are these members appointed by the Parliament and the Government combined similar to the process that governs the Constitutional Council, or would we make it an NGO/UN type of appointment? 

8. What would be the rule on election spending? Is there a constitutional law about this matter? 

9. Is anyone constitutionally not allowed to run? Such as senior bureaucrats (موظفين الفئة الأولى) i.e. judges, army officers on active duty? What about قائد الجيش? 

10. If a non-Maronite wishes to run, what forbids him/her from qualifying for the race considering that he/she is constitutionally allowed to do so? 

11. In case of disagreement, does the commission have the right to resolve it or do the candidates go to the constitutional council? 

12. Debates will be a key component of this undertaking, whereby candidates shall expose their agendas and debate various public policy issues. It would be ideal if we could establish a "Commission on Presidential Debates", a non-profit that shall establish the way that those presidential election debates on TV are run between candidates. Is that a good idea? If so, who would be part of that Commission? Who would be responsible for it? 

13. Finally, what do you think of these additional rules?

· Individual contributions have a limit of $2,000.

· The financial secrecy is lifted from all the candidates’ campaigns’s bank accounts, personal bank accounts, and all immediate family members’ bank accounts. 

· Buying airspace for political commercials is forbidden.

· Disparaging rivals in any electoral advertising is not allowed.

· Each candidate is accorded 45 minutes of free TV airtime—spread over 18 spots—to present their respective programs. Laws require media to broadcast those dry pitches in slots providing equal exposure to all contestants. 

· All elections will be held on a Sunday, in one day in booths spread across the country. The voting stations open at 8 am and close at 6 pm in small towns or at 8 pm in cities. (Obviously, this is under the Ministry's jurisdiction.) 

· The campaigns end at midnight the Friday before the election. 

· Three live debates between the ten candidates will air on different media channels. They will be organized by a Commission on Presidential Debates, a non-profit who shall establish the way that presidential election debates are run between candidates. 

· Three live debates will occur between the two final candidates on different media channels, slated for various locations around Lebanon. 

· Elected officials who have abused public funds may be deprived of the right to run for national public office for as long as 10 years. 

14. If the above is resolved, how do we go about amending the Constitution? Steps, timeline and mechanism? 

15. Could we have a viable draft of the amended articles that need to be changed in the Constitution so we can start pushing them? 

---

Summary of Responses  

Practitioners' Network (PN) members' responses are grouped below. Direct responses are numbered correspondingly to the questions above.

General Responses

• Elections in any country must be a national initiative. All members of the nation play a role in have successful elections. 
• The ideas and logic of politicians are inconsistent with new solutions to the crisis in Lebanon 
• There must be a strong and pressing national initiative by those who are outside the current circle of power.


Direct Responses

1. The Two Round System (TRS) ensures an election by majority, although in the second round voters may get polarized. This happened recently in Maldives, where TRS is favored. 

2. The requirement for collecting signatures is impractical. It is never possible to verify signatures. EMB should be liberal in allowing people to contest and the law should support that. The purpose of such a provision is to eliminate candidates who are not serious – this goal can be achieved by having high security that can be forfeited if the candidate does not get more than a threshold of valid votes. It could be 1/6 of the valid votes. 

3. It is almost impossible and needs to be reconsidered.

4. One person and one vote means equal value of each vote. Ideally that should be the goal. However, on grounds of administrative convenience demarcation of constituency boundaries does allow 5 to 10% variation in size of the constituency meant for 1 candidate.

5. Run-off is organized between the top two candidates. Therefore, talk of a threshold in not necessary.

6. It should be done as soon as possible when the EMB is still in election mode. Recently Nigeria had kept one week.

7. Ideally it should be local Commissioners unless during the transition a mix of domestic and foreign commissioners can be appointed. The recent trend is Independent EMBs. The appointment process varies from country to country. In India the process is rather opaque but the EMB commands high acceptability which is exceptional. Generally a search committee is set up to recommend a panel and the President picks EMB members from that panel. Some countries provide for approval be parliament also.  

8. Legal provisions on this issue differ from country to country but most countries have a campaign limit for candidates. This is for providing a level playing field but it is very difficult to enforce that limit particularly in economies having large scale cash transactions.
There may be limits on campaign spending of political parties also, but some countries like India do not have limits on political parties.

9. Those in government at present should be allowed to contest only after resigning from the government job.

10. Ideally there should be no discrimination on grounds of ethnicity but some constituencies may be reserved for certain groups that need affirmative action.

11. Some EMBs have separate institution like election tribunals in many countries (eg. Election Complaints Commission in Afghanistan). Ideally, EMB should be given powers to dispose of petitions during the poll period. EMB can deal with these complaints in a quasi-judicial proceeding. And after the election, the aggrieved party can go to the competent court or the Tribunal. This is how it is done in India.

12. Presidential debates are a good idea, but should be provided to create a level playing field. The EMB or the government should provide air time, if possible, from public funding.  Such debates should be confined to the policies and programs of the candidates.

13. Any additional rules to create a level playing field and to bring transparency should be welcomed.

14. Ideally a draft should be prepared by a committee of experts in the field of election, judiciary, and political parties. This draft should be used for consultations with stakeholders and particularly with political parties. Then the reform proposal should be pushed in parliament through the appropriate forum. Help from advocacy groups should also be taken as required.

15. Drafts will be helpful but should be finalized after consultation with stakeholders. 


Contributing Members 

• Noor Mohammad
• Murad Alodrna

  اننا في بلادنا العربية نفتقر الى الديمقراطية الصحيحة وافتقارنا اشد الى منظمات ذات مصداقية ومحايدة وتعمل بمهنية     افالاحزاب الحاكمة او الطوائف تعمل بشكل توافقي وقد يغلب الاقوى والذي يمتلك السلاح وقد يفرض رأيه بالقوة . المهم نبحث عن حلول واتصور ان تجتمع كل منظمات المجتمع المدني التي تهتم بالديمقراطية وحقوق الانسان والانتخابات وغيرها من المنظمات المعنية الامر وتعقد ندوات تثقيفية اولا وفي جميع مناطق وبلدات لبنان وكذلك في الجامعات والمنتديات الثقافية وبعد هذه الندوات تحدد موعد لمؤتمر موسع يحظره جمع غفير من المنظمات والمثقفين والباحثين وحتى ممكن ان يكونون معهم سياسيين لان الموضوع مهم ويجدر ان يكون السياسيين اكثر اهتمام بالبلد فهم من يقود البلد .. وفي الاخر تكون توصيات وممكن ان يجتمع عليها كل الحظور للضغط على المسؤولين جميعا لحل هذه المعظلة ولنا في تونس مثال حينما ضغطت المنظمات وشكلت حكومة التوريكا وبقيت الى الانتخابات الاخيرة في نهاية العام الماضي . تقبلواتحياتي ونامل ان نكون قد ادلونا بدلونا لاهلنا في لبنان وللاخت التي طلبت ذلك .

سعد الراوي 

نائب رئيس مفوضية الانتخابات المستقلة في العراق سابقا     

[email protected]     [email protected]

الاردن / عمان  00962797340558                       

اصدقائي الاعزاء 

صباح الخير

الانتخابات في اي بلد ما هي مشروع وطني ,لكي ينجح ذلك المشروع لا بد من حسن التخطيط الاستراتيجي له,الا ان التخطيط الناجح يجب ان يخرج عن دائرة السياسيين المتواجدين حاليا في السلطة ,لان مصلحتهم تتعارض منطقيا مع الحلول الجديدة للازمة في لبنان 

لا بد من بعث هياة مستقلة تهتم ببلورة مشاريع قوانين انتخابية جديدة ,ثم يتولى المشرع اصدار قانون انتخابي جديد يقطع مع الماضي,ثم يقع تكليف الهئية المستقلة للانتخابات بالاشراف على كامل المسار الانتخابي تحت رقابة المجتمع المدني في لبنان ورقابة المنظمات الدولية ذات الصلة

لكن يبقى الموضوع رهين مبادرة وطنية  قوية وضاغطة  من خارج المتواجدين حاليا في سدة الحكم

اتمنى لكم التوفيق والنجاح

مراد الودرني

منسق الهيئة العليا المستقلة للانتخابات 

دائرة مدنين

الجمهورية التونسية

For some of the questions, International IDEA's databases have some comparative data: http://www.idea.int/uid/

Especially for questions related to signature collection and selection/appointment of EMB members. 

1. One-round or two-round elections? 

In the world today, there are two principal voting methods for electing presidents: 

a) One-round plurality elections whereby the candidate with the most votes wins. 

b) Two-round majority runoff elections whereby an absolute majority is required on the first ballot, and if no candidate is elected on that first ballot, a second round is held, opposing the two candidates with the most votes on the first ballot, and thus, the person with the most votes on the second ballot is elected. (FYI majority runoff is used in 49 democratic countries for the (direct) election of the president, and one-round plurality is used in 20 countries.) 

Option b seems the more natural road to take as it has been shown that "strategic desertion" of candidates (i.e. when people vote only for strong candidates and desert weak candidates) is less likely to happen in a two-round election. 

 Ans.

TRS ensures election by majority though in the second round voters may get polarized as it happened recently in Maldives. I favour TRS.

2. How do people qualify for the Presidential race and become official candidates? 

Example: Each candidate requires certified signatures of at least 10,000 voters spread equally over three Governorates? Or each candidate requires signatures from 10% of the voters of at least 50% of the districts of every Governorate?  Or... 

Ans.

Requirement for collecting signature is impractical. It is never possible to verify signature. I think EMB should be liberal to allow people to contest and law should support that. The purpose of such a provision is to eliminate non-serious candidates – this goal can be achieved by having a high security that can be forfeited if the candidate does not get more than a threshold of valid votes. It could be 1/6 of the valid votes. 

3. Who verifies the validity of the signatures? 

Could an Independent Electoral Foreign Commission oversee the validity of the said signatures? The same commission that counts the ballots? 

 Ans.

It is almost impossible and needs to be reconsidered.

4. Once the candidates are selected and the first electoral round commences, are the elections based on a one person-one vote cross nationwide regardless of districts, governorates, confession and geographic residence? If so, does every person only name one candidate? 

 Ans.

One person one votes means equal value of each vote. Ideally that should be goal. However, on grounds of administrative convenience demarcation of constituency boundaries does allow 5 to 10% variation in size of the constituency meant for 1 candidate.

5. In case it is a two-round majority run-off, how many votes are needed for the candidates to clear the first round? 

If no one clears more than 50% of the votes from the first round, will the top two candidates go on to compete in the second and final round? or would it be anyone who clears a certain percentage, say 30% (in other words, the first 3)?  

 Ans.

Run-off is organized between the top two candidates. Therefore, talk of a threshold in not necessary.

6. In case it is a two-round majority run-off, how much time separates round one from round two? 

 Ans.

It should be done as soon as possible when the EMB is still  in election mode and delaying it will mean getting the people and observers and security etc afresh. Recently Nigeria had kept 1 week.

7. What is the exact role of the Independent Electoral (Foreign or Local) Commission? Who appoints them? If we opt for a mixed commission, how many are Lebanese and how many are foreign and what are their qualifications? Are these members appointed by the Parliament and the Government combined similar to the process that governs the Constitutional Council, or would we make it an NGO/UN type of appointment? 

Ans.

Ideally it should be local Commissioners unless during the transition a mix of domestic and foreign commissioners can be appointed. The recent trend is Independent EMBs. The appointment process varies from country to country. In India the process is rather opaque but the EMB commands high acceptability which is exceptional. Generally a search committee is set up to recommend a panel and the President picks EMB members from that panel. Some countries provide for approval be parliament also.  

8. What would be the rule on election spending? Is there a constitutional law about this matter? 

 Ans.

Legal provisions on this issue differ from country to country but most countries have a campaign limit for candidates. This is for providing a level playing field but it very difficult to enforce that limit particularly in economies having large scake cash transactions.

 There may be limits on campaign spending of political parties also but some countries like India do not have limits on political parties.

9. Is anyone constitutionally not allowed to run? Such as senior bureaucrats (موظفينالفئة الأولى) i.e. judges, army officers on active duty? What about قائد الجيش? 

 Ans.

In my view those in government at present should be allowed to contest only after resigning from the government job.

 10. If a non-Maronite wishes to run, what forbids him/her from qualifying for the race considering that he/she is constitutionally allowed to do so? 

 Ans.

Ideally there should be no discrimination on grounds of ethnicity but some constituencies may be reserved for certain groups that need affirmative action.

 11. In case of disagreement, does the commission have the right to resolve it or do the candidates go to the constitutional council? 

 Ans.

Some EMBs have separate institution like Election Complaints Commission in Afghanistan, Election Tribunals in many countries. Ideally, EMB should be given powers to dispose of petitions during the poll period. EMB can deal with these complaints in a quasi-judicial proceeding. And after the election, the aggrieved party can go to the competent court or the Tribunal. This is how it is dine in India.

12. Debates will be a key component of this undertaking, whereby candidates shall expose their agendas and debate various public policy issues. It would be ideal if we could establish a "Commission on Presidential Debates", a non-profit that shall establish the way that those presidential election debates on TV are run between candidates. Is that a good idea? If so, who would be part of that Commission? Who would be responsible for it? 

 Ans.

Presidential debates are a good idea. But it should be provided to create a level playing field and the EMB or the government should provide air time if possible as a public funding.  Such debates should be confined to policies and programmes of the candidates.

 13. Finally, what do you think of these additional rules?

· Individual contributions have a limit of $2,000.

· The financial secrecy is lifted from all the candidates’ campaigns’s bank accounts, personal bank accounts, and all immediate family members’ bank accounts. 

· Buying airspace for political commercials is forbidden.

· Disparaging rivals in any electoral advertising is not allowed.

· Each candidate is accorded 45 minutes of free TV airtime—spread over 18 spots—to present their respective programs. Laws require media to broadcast those dry pitches in slots providing equal exposure to all contestants. 

· All elections will be held on a Sunday, in one day in booths spread across the country. The voting stations open at 8 am and close at 6 pm in small towns or at 8 pm in cities. (Obviously, this is under the Ministry's jurisdiction.) 

· The campaigns end at midnight the Friday before the election. 

· Three live debates between the ten candidates will air on different media channels. They will be organized by a Commission on Presidential Debates, a non-profit who shall establish the way that presidential election debates are run between candidates. 

· Three live debates will occur between the two final candidates on different media channels, slated for various locations around Lebanon. 

· Elected officials who have abused public funds may be deprived of the right to run for national public office for as long as 10 years. 

 Ans.

Any additional rules to create a level playing field and to bring transparency should be welcome.

14. If the above is resolved, how do we go about amending the Constitution? Steps, timeline and mechanism? 

 Ans.

Ideally a draft should be prepared by a committee of experts consisting of experts in the field of election, juciary, political parties. This draft should be used for consultations with stakeholders and particularly with political parties. Then the reform proposal should be pushed in the parliament through appropriate forum. Help of Advocacy Groups should also be taken as required.

15. Could we have a viable draft of the amended articles that need to be changed in the Constitution so we can start pushing them? 

 Ans.

Draft will be helpful but the draft should be finalized after consultation with stakeholders.