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PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Rai, Qassem renew calls to elect president a day before cabinet convenes

Michel Aoun accused Najib Mikati of wanting "to monopolize power." Nine ministers boycott Monday's cabinet meeting. 

Rai, Qassem renew calls to elect president a day before cabinet convenes

The office of Lebanon's president has been empty since Michel Aoun left the Presidential Palace in Baabda on Oct. 30, 2022. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)

BEIRUT — The head of the Maronite Church Bechara al-Rai on Sunday called for the "acceleration" of the Lebanese presidential election. MPs have to date failed to elect a successor to President Michel Aoun, whose term in office expired on Oct. 31.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general, Naim Qassem, urged parliamentary groups to engage in dialogue, an approach that could be initiated by his party's ally Amal Movement leader and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri after the holiday season.

These calls come a day before Lebanon's caretaker cabinet is scheduled to convene to discuss social and medical aid, a move denounced by Aoun  as an infringement of the constitution on the grounds that it oversteps the prerogatives of a caretaker cabinet. This meeting will be cabinet's first since it assumed caretaker status in May following legislative elections.

In his Sunday homily, the Maronite patriarch called on the parliament speaker to "speed up the presidential election," contending that "some parties are ready to waste time for months and years to achieve their end."

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"During our meeting last week with ambassadors of Arab countries in Rome, we felt that they are all ready to help Lebanon, but they resent the MPs because they refrain from electing a president for reasons that do not serve the interest of the country," Rai said.

According to Rai, "It was clear that effective aid to Lebanon is linked to the election of a head of state in the first place, the formation of a government capable of implementing reforms, and the return of the country to its policy of distancing."

Cabinet meeting

The head of the Maronite church also asked Najib Mikati, "who has always distanced himself from divisions, to put things in order," as he prepares to convene his ministerial team on Monday. Mikati's planned cabinet meeting will be devoted to the study of several matters, including approval of a request to withdraw $35 million from Banque du Liban over three months to cover the purchase of medicines and basic foodstuffs as well as aid for the army.

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Commenting on the convening of the caretaker cabinet, Aoun said in a statement that it is an "attempt to seize power and impose [Mikati's] will on the Lebanese contrary to what the constitution dictates. Responding to the hospital, health, social and other needs … does not justify this decision that puts the country in an unprecedented situation and will affect the political stability."

Aoun also called on the government to "take a unified position not to violate the constitution which specifies clearly the role of a caretaker government."

In view of the tug of war between Mikati and the party Aoun founded, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), some observers believe that the government ministers close to the former head of state will boycott the meeting.

Later on Sunday, caretaker ministers Abdallah Bou Habib, Henri Khoury, Maurice Slim, Amin Salam, Hector Hajjar, Walid Fayyad, Walid Nassar, George Bouchikian and Issam Charafeddine released a statement announcing that they will boycott Monday's cabinet meeting, adding that "it has been agreed upon by the prime minister and cabinet that no session would be held unless [in the case of] … an emergency … [or with] the approval of all government members on [convening]."

"We cannot consider the presidential vacuum along with a governmental vacuum a normal matter in the country, and deal with it in a normal, chartered, constitutional and political way," the ministers added, while also stressing that they "refuse to violate the constitution." 

Call for dialogue

For his part, Hezbollah's No. 2, Qassem, said in a speech delivered during a social ceremony in southern Lebanon that "the priority today is the election of a president who will ensure the implementation of an economic rescue plan, and not raise controversial issues that serve Israel and lead to sedition."

"We must agree to elect a president since the parliamentary groups are dispersed," he continued, according to remarks reported by our correspondent in South Lebanon.

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Qassem stressed the need for parliamentary groups to "get along with each other," criticizing "those who condemn the agreement."

Kassem also commented on support for MP Michel Moawad as a presidential candidate, saying that the number of votes Moawad receives "regresses more and more every day." Moawad, who is supported by many protest movement MPs, is a fierce opponent of Hezbollah. In the eight electoral sessions thus far held by Parliament to choose Lebanon's next president, he has received more votes than any other candidate, but never enough to secure his election. In more recent sessions, Moawad has indeed seen the number of votes for him decrease.

"We call for dialogue, and those who oppose it are blocking the presidential deadline," Qassem insisted, saying that "there is no other way" to elect a head of state.

The Lebanese Parliament has failed, in eight parliamentary sessions, to elect a successor to Aoun, due to the lack of consensus on a candidate. Consensus among the various political groups is customary in Lebanon ahead of a president's election. While an element of the opposition continues to back Moawad's candidacy, MPs from the FPM camp, the Amal Movement and Hezbollah continue to vote blank and withdraw from Parliament after the first round of voting, resulting in a loss of the quorum required to continue the electoral sessions.

BEIRUT — The head of the Maronite Church Bechara al-Rai on Sunday called for the "acceleration" of the Lebanese presidential election. MPs have to date failed to elect a successor to President Michel Aoun, whose term in office expired on Oct. 31.Meanwhile, Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general, Naim Qassem, urged parliamentary groups to engage in dialogue, an approach that could be initiated by...