Beirut (AsiaNews) In their monthly meeting in Bkerke under the chairmanship of Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Lebanon's Maronite bishops said that the country needs a "more just and representative" electoral law. They also used the occasion to condemn violence in all of its forms and stressed the need for all political parties be represented in the government.
The secretary to the Bishops' meeting, Mgr Joseph Tawk, read the final statement in which the prelates expressed first of all their "malaise with some elements of the electoral process" and urged every citizen to "collaborate with the authorities to re-establish calm".
Their statement was especially critical of some shortcomings that the recent elections have brought to the fore.
The Synod called on the appropriate authorities to assume their responsibilities and start the process of reforming "the electoral law as soon as possible in order to adopt one that is more just and farthest from vengeance."
The Bishops warned that it would be dangerous to organise future elections on the bases of the 2000 law, which they said was "unjust".
They expressed hope that the new government "would appoint competent, conscientious and trustworthy individuals to the country's administration".
They also "strongly condemned the acts of violence that occurred in northern Lebanon during the election campaign".
The government that is in the making must quickly "become an instrument of national unity that is representative of the whole population," they said.
The bishops reserved their last words for the country's economic situation, which past violence has left in shambles.
They urged the new government to commit itself to reviving trade and especially "turn as rapidly as possible Lebanon back into that international tourist mecca it once was". (YH)
