The head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces, criticized Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri on Thursday for not convening Parliament to elect a new president over the past year — with today marking one year since Parliament last held such a session, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Berri has repeatedly called for "dialogue" before convening on an election, but according to Geagea, "all possible dialogues between the blocs have been exhausted."
Geagea asserted that Parliament's failure to elect a candidate is attributed to Hezbollah’s insistence on its candidate, Suleiman Frangieh. Meanwhile, "all the others — the opposition, the Forces of Change MPs, the independents — expressed their desire to explore a third candidate," Geagea said.
To date, Parliament has made 12 unsuccessful attempts to elect a new president — the latest being on June 14, 2023.
Despite recognizing the political crisis as not merely "a matter of dialogue but rather a disruption of elections until the opposition gathers all its cards to enable it to elect its presidential candidate," the Lebanese Forces proposed three approaches for an effective dialogue aimed at electing a new president, Geagea said.
The first approach involves following the National Moderation Bloc's initiative and urging other blocs to send representatives to meet in Parliament for consultation on electing a new president, Geagea explained.
The second approach suggests that the French envoy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, meet with parliamentary blocs, "present a summary of the results of his intensive tours to the officials, parties, and all parliamentary blocs" and then withdraw — allowing the blocs to conduct consultations before Berri calls for an electoral session.
Geagea's third proposed approach recommends that Berri convene an electoral session, hold a first-round vote and later suspend the session to enable blocs to consult before proceeding with subsequent rounds of voting until a new president is elected.
"We have adopted these approaches because they do not conflict in any aspect with the Constitution, and at the same time they facilitate the alleged dialogue required by the other party," Geagea added.
According to Geagea, all these proposals have been presented to Le Drian.
Le Drian concluded a two-day visit to Lebanon at the end of May. He met with senior Lebanese officials, including the speaker of parliament, the caretaker prime minister, Hezbollah officials, and the Maronite patriarch. The primary objective of Le Drian's visit was to try to break Lebanon's presidential deadlock.
The visit came after discussions in France about the potential of President Macron himself visiting Beirut to try to spur progress on resolving the presidential vacancy.
A presidential candidate needs a two-thirds majority of votes in Lebanon's 128-member Parliament to be elected in the first round; however, in subsequent rounds, a candidate only needs to garner a simple majority.
So far, the Lebanese Parliament's attempts to elect Aoun's successor have not made it to a second round of voting due to MPs walking out after the first round causing the chamber to lose quorum. At each new electoral session, Berri reinitiates with a first-round vote – a decision which is considered a violation of the constitution by several legal experts who argue that the electoral session should remain open, allowing a candidate to be elected with a simple majority when Parliament reconvenes.