Ahead of parliamentary elections in June 2013, political debate in Lebanon is focused on potential changes to the electoral system and districts. As part of its work to support electoral reform in Lebanon, IFES developed computer simulation software that allows comparative analysis of these potential changes.

In July 2011, IFES conducted a series of workshops to showcase and discuss the software, designed and developed by Lebanese electoral experts.

IFES’ Lebanon Chief of Party Richard Chambers gave a presentation on electoral reform to provide an overview of the key issues that will be analyzed by the software, like introducing a proportional representation (PR) system. Over 40 individuals, including electoral experts, civil society organizations and members of the international community attended.

The simulator allows for analysis and discussion of a range of potential electoral changes in Lebanon, including:

• PR using closed lists
• PR using open lists, with different numbers of preferential votes for candidates
• The current system (Block Vote ‘Winner Takes All’)
• Mixed/Parallel Systems, including the system proposed by the Boutros Commission

The software generates thousands of electoral scenarios with different criteria and produces “fairness measures” and other comparative output. The approach used in the analysis is generic and not case-specific. Thus, it is unbiased, objective, based on international standards and motivated by fair representation, participation of minorities and political efficiency.

Based on scenario results, the simulator is a tool for analyzing:

• Different numbers of electoral districts and different combinations of qadas as districts
• The impact of using confessional quotas, women quotas or both quotas
• The impact of different PR seat allocation formulae (Sainte-Laguë and Largest Remainder)
• The impact of using thresholds/incomplete lists under PR

During the workshops, civil society representatives requested that IFES add additional districting models to the simulator’s capability so they could run more electoral scenarios in the system and compare potential results.