BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to convene a Parliament meeting to elect a new president by end of this month or early May, a March 8 source said Sunday, implicitly rejecting the patriarch’s call for an early session this week.
“Speaker Berri will call Parliament into the first session to elect a new president by the end of April or early May,” the source told The Daily Star.
The source said a Parliament meeting, scheduled for Tuesday to debate and vote on the public sector’s controversial salary scale bill, has made holding an early session to elect a new president impossible.
“The wage hike bill might not be approved Tuesday given the remaining differences among lawmakers on revenues and proposed taxes to fund the salary scale,” the source said.
He added that the local, regional and international climate was still in favor of holding the presidential election on time to avert a vacuum in the presidency. “The picture is not yet clear concerning the presidential candidates,” the source said.
Because of Parliament’s session Tuesday, the Cabinet will meet at Baabda Palace Wednesday, a source close to Prime Minister Tammam Salam said. Salam is expected to meet President Michel Sleiman Monday.
Earlier Sunday, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai urged Berri to begin convening Parliament this week to elect a new president, as Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea sounded confident that his March 14 allies would support his candidacy.
“We are all looking forward for the Parliament speaker to announce in the next two days the beginning of sessions to elect a new president who is up to the current political, economic and security challenges,” Rai said in a Palm Sunday Mass in Bkirki, north of Beirut.
Rai said a new president should be “a guarantee for the legitimacy of all constitutional institutions and to push the state forward and open new horizons in our national life.”
“The best choice of the most appropriate and competent president for the country requires plenty of time for voting and consultations.”
Rai indicated that Parliament must begin meeting to elect a new president after it is done debating and voting on the salary scale bill for the public sector employees and teachers.
Lebanon last month entered the two-month constitutional deadline for Parliament to meet to elect a new head of state to replace Sleiman whose six-year term expires on May 25.
Bishop Elias Awdeh, the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut, called for the election of a peace-loving president in Lebanon.
“I want a president who loves Lebanon. I want him to be peaceful, a man of peace who has no malice or hatred in his heart,” Awdeh said in a Palm Sunday Mass he led at the St. Georges Cathedral on Njmeh Square in Beirut.
Geagea earlier this month announced he would run for the presidency, unleashing what promises to be a fiercely contested presidential battle, overshadowed by tough security and economic challenges posed by the adverse fallout of the 3-year-old war in Syria.
In addition to Geagea, Western Bekaa MP Robert Ghanem from the March 14 coalition has also announced his candidacy to the country’s top Christian post.
Although the March 14 coalition has not yet officially taken a stance on Geagea’s candidacy, the LF chief appeared to be confident of winning the coalition’s support. “I would not have run in the election if I were not certain of the March 14 alliance’s support for me,” Geagea said in an interview to be published in the Saudi daily Al-Watan Monday.
“My allies in the March 14 coalition are very close to making a decision to support my candidacy to the presidency,” he said. “We have our own political project and we must seek to implement it by all available means.”
“ Lebanon has become an open ground for chaos, which leaves it vulnerable to further deterioration,” Geagea said.“Strong individuals should assume official posts in order to strengthen the state. Lebanon should have a strong president who is capable of implementing a strong political program.”
In another statement, Geagea said he was waiting for his ally, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, to endorse his candidacy to the presidency.
“[Former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri has not yet publicly announced that he backs my candidacy to the presidency, bearing in mind that he has once said that Samir Geagea is his candidate for the post,” Geagea told an Algerian radio station Saturday.
“Consequently, I am waiting for his endorsement and the backing of the March 14 parties, because Hariri represents an important political force in Lebanon, and a heavyweight in Parliament and on the streets,” he added.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said Lebanon has a rare chance to elect a “made in Lebanon president” and reiterated its opposition to the renewal of Sleiman’s mandate.
“The Lebanese have an extraordinary opportunity to elect a president with a 100 percent Lebanese will,” Sheikh Nabik Qaouk, deputy head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, told a rally in the southern village of Majdal Zoun.
“We strongly stand firm on the election of a new president and we reject any extension of the current president’s term. This is a final, known and irreversible stance,” he said.
“National interest, the sensitivity of the stage and the gravity of challenges call for the election of a president who can protect Lebanon’s identity, position and national role and who can be trusted to strengthen Lebanon’s position in confronting the Israeli and takfiri aggression.”
Source: The Daily Star