FPM MP Nicolas Sehnaoui in Bkirki, March 14, 2023. (Credit: Screenshot Al Jadeed)
BEIRUT — Free Patriotic Movement MP Nicholas Sehnaoui on Tuesday said that the Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai "supports the idea" of a proposed law to divide the municipality of Beirut in two, according to remarks made after a visit by an FPM delegation to Bkirki.
The bill proposing to divide the municipality was submitted in July 2022 by FPM MPs Sehnaoui (Beirut I), Edgar Traboulsi (Beirut II) and Caesar Abi Khalil (Chouf-Aley). It suggests having two municipal councils made up of 12 members each instead of the current 24-member council.
Parties represented in Parliament are divided over the bill. The three MPS who submitted the project went to the headquarters of the Maronite Patriarchate on Tuesday morning to make their case.
"The circumstances jeopardize the parity of the municipality," said Sehnaoui at the end of the meeting with Rai. He also announced that, with his colleagues, they are "touring various political and religious leaders" to get their support for the proposed law.
"It is about dividing Beirut into two constituencies — as is already the case for parliamentary elections — in which each one would get 12 members," he explained.
"The patriarch has shown understanding and supports the idea," Sehnaoui added.
Reporting on the meeting at Bkirki, the MP added that the presidential issue was not discussed. The country has been without a president since Michel Aoun's term ended in October 2022. Thus far, 11 parliamentary sessions dedicated to electing Aoun's successor have ended in failure. Bkirki is advocating for an inter-Christian agreement on the presidential election.
Several Christian Beirut municipal council members have resigned from the municipality since the last municipal elections in 2016, citing mismanagement of the capital.
The FPM MPs' plan to divide the municipality of Beirut has been repeatedly criticized by other elected officials, such as independent MP Waddah Sadek who told L'Orient-Le Jour that "behind Beirut I and Beirut II are hidden Beirut East and Beirut West," a reference to the division of the capital during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90) when Beirut was split into predominantly Christian and predominantly Muslim sides.