Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat was nonchalant about the government’s approval of a new electoral law saying he agreed on it out of “keenness for consensus”, Ad Diyar daily reported on Thursday.

“It is a settlement of the status quo. We have agreed on it out of keenness for consensus despite our remarks,” Jumblat told the daily.

A new report launched Wednesday by the International Committee of the Red Cross reveals five times more civilians die in offensives carried out in cities than in other battles.

After marathon talks and an eleventh-hour agreement, the Cabinet on Wednesday approved a new electoral law based on proportional representation and 15 electoral districts, replacing the winner-takes-all system for the first time in the country's history.

Minister of State for Women's Affairs Jean Oghassapian said on Wednesday that dismissing the women's quota from the new agreed vote law was “the worst part of the election law.”

“Canceling the women's quota was the worst part of the law. It was canceled the last minute due to a number of complications that affected other items in the new electoral format," Oghassapian told VDL (93.3) in an interview.

The Kataeb party slammed Wednesday the newly approved proportional representation electoral law as a “political fraud” describing it as a “masked bid to return to the 1960” majoritarian law, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

“What happened is a political fraud and a masked return to the 1960 law. The vote law was tailored to suit the interests of some people in power,” a prominent Kataeb source told the daily in an interview.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides voiced hopes on Tuesday that Lebanon agrees on a new electoral law for its parliamentary elections in order to overcome the obstacles.

“We hope that a new vote law is reached soon in order to help solve the problems that Lebanon is suffering from,” said the Minister in a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Jebran Bassil.

Judge Ziad Abou Haidar indicted on Tuesday Mohammed al-Ahmar and his associates for the deliberate murder of Roy al-Hamoush and the file was referred to the first investigative judge, media reports said on Tuesday.

Al-Ahmar and his two associates, H.M. and A.Gh., were arrested last week in two separate operations after killing Hamoush overnight last Wednesday in the Karantina area.

Lebanese Forces deputy leader MP George Adwan emphasized that political parties have no choice but to agree on a new parliamentary electoral law because it has become “impossible to turn back,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

President Michel Aoun held a meeting on Monday with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades at the Baabda Palace, where talks focused on the bilateral relations between the two countries and the means to strengthen them at various levels.

Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh said on Monday that an agreement on an electoral law is the responsibility of the Free Patriotic Movement now, as he urged against coming up with new “surprises” that only hinder an accord.

In an interview with VDL (100.5), Hamadeh threw the ball in the FPM's court and said: “The representation of expatriates is very important, but the manner of their representation is still disputed. I do not see the need to make it a controversial issue.”