Search
Search

ELECTION

Rai to MPs: Elect a 'sovereign' president

Rai to MPs: Elect a 'sovereign' president

Maronite patriarch Bechara al-Rai. (Credit: NNA)

BEIRUT — Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai expressed his fear Sunday that parliamentary sessions to elect a new president would continue to face impasse as members of Parliament still have not reached a consensus on a candidate.

Rai's comments, made during his weekly Sunday sermon, followed Parliament's failed session last week to elect a successor to current President Michel Aoun. 

“If the representatives do not rise up against themselves and elect a sovereign president, the people should not be blamed if they rise up against them,” Rai added.

On Thursday, Parliament held its first presidential election session despite there being no consensus on a candidate between various political groups, and amid ongoing negotiations. Lebanon's constitutionally mandated election period began Sept. 1, but Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had not convened a session until last week, waiting for a consensus on a name.

The deadline for Parliament to elect a new president is Oct. 31, the day Aoun's term ends.

Thursday's Parliament session was adjourned due to an incomplete quorum after a number of MPs withdrew from the session. Some 122 MPs were present at the session and voted in the first round. Following the adjournment of the meeting, Berri said that he would schedule a new electoral session "when there is an agreement on a President."

The failed session last week came amid fears of an executive power vacuum, as Aoun is set to leave office at the end of this month, and as a new cabinet has yet to form since legislative elections in May. The previous cabinet has been serving in a caretaker capacity since then. 

"The population, in turmoil today, realizes that not electing a new president is an act of sabotage to strike the main state institution," Rai said during his Sunday sermon. 

At a time when some people are calling for the transfer of the president's powers to the caretaker government in case of a presidential vacancy, others are calling for a reshuffle of the current cabinet. Rai dismissed these options in last Sunday's sermon: "There must be no resignation of the government, no reshuffling of the government, no presidential vacancy. This is a political, national and existential crime," he said.

For his part, Beirut Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elias Audi said Sunday during his sermon that he hopes that the election of a new president "will happen on time and without delay." He added the next president "should have a vision and a plan, be credible and seek to save the remains of this country."

A member of Hezbollah's Central Council, Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, said Sunday from the southern town of Hanin that the election of a new president presents a "real opportunity to save the country."

Kaouk criticized parties opposed to Hezbollah for allegedly "wanting to elect a president to their specifications to lead the country to strife and chaos. He stated that the opposing team "followed, during the first Parliamentary election session, the plan drawn up by the American and Saudi embassies," and that "this plan is a failure because it ignores the realities of the sensitive internal equations in Lebanon."

He concluded by saying that Hezbollah is "working with friends and allies to consult with them to elect a new president within the constitutional deadlines, because we do not want a vacancy, and are in a rush because we want to save the country from its crises.”

Kaouk said he hoped for the formation of a new government "with full powers" in the coming days.

BEIRUT — Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai expressed his fear Sunday that parliamentary sessions to elect a new president would continue to face impasse as members of Parliament still have not reached a consensus on a candidate. Rai's comments, made during his weekly Sunday sermon, followed Parliament's failed session last week to elect a successor to current President Michel Aoun. “If...