BEIRUT: MP Michel Aoun’s initiative to break the presidential deadlock was met with mixed reactions Thursday, with the Lebanese Forces hailing the proposal, while the Future Movement and the Kataeb Party considered it undemocratic.
Lebanese Forces MP Fadi Karam welcomed Aoun’s proposal to limit the presidential race to himself and to LF leader Samir Geagea.
“Although Gen. Aoun’s suggestion on restricting competition between him and Dr. Geagea came late, and is not fully democratic, it is very logical and suits the nature of Lebanon’s political system,” Karam posted on his Twitter account. “It is worth thinking about by everyone.”
In an interview Wednesday evening, Aoun, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, said he was ready to attend a Parliament session to elect a president if the race was restricted to himself and to Geagea.
George Adwan, another LF MP, approved of Aoun’s pitch. “We made this proposal from the beginning. We said let Gen. Aoun attend the session for elections,” Adwan said. “Gen. Aoun adopted this proposal now and this is something good.”
Adwan’s remarks came after he attended a meeting of a parliamentary subcommittee representing March 8 and March 14 lawmakers which discussed draft election laws.
MP Henri Helou, a third presidential candidate backed by MP Walid Jumblatt, asked Aoun to clarify his intentions behind restricting the contest to just two candidates.
“We believe in democracy in Lebanon, where every Maronite has the right to run for the presidency without any condition, and through which only a vote in Parliament can lead to victory,” Helou told Akhbar al-Lyawm, a local news outlet. “I am still running.”
Kataeb Party leader Amine Gemayel described Aoun’s proposal as a“war of elimination.”
“Where is democracy in Aoun’s proposal on presidential polls? It is a war of elimination, he wants to eliminate others,” Gemayel said during an interview with LBCI, adding that he was still a presidential candidate.
Future bloc MP Mohammad Hajjar said Aoun’s initiative violated the Constitution by restricting the race to two candidates only. “Why this insistence on violating the Constitution and all the conventions and mechanisms adopted to elect a president since independence and up to 2008?” Hajjar told Al-Manar TV.
MP Jamal Jarrah, also from the Future bloc, said Aoun’s proposal undermined democracy.
Ibrahim Kanaan, a lawmaker from Aoun’s bloc, said whoever opposed Aoun’s initiative wanted to elect a candidate who did not actually represent Christians.
“Those who did not respond positively to the proposal of a competition … between Gen. Aoun and LF leader Samir Geagea, both of whom represent Christians the most, according to statistics, want someone who does not represent [Christians],” Kanaan told Al-Manar TV.
MPs attending the subcommittee meeting told The Daily Star that a draft election law backed by the LF, the Progressive Socialist Party and the Future Movement was discussed.
According to the proposal, 60 MPs would be elected under proportional representation while the remaining 68 would be chosen under a winner-takes-all system.
The subcommittee has until the end of the year to agree on one draft election law and refer it to Parliament for endorsement.
In case talks fail, Speaker Nabih Berri will put all draft laws referred to the legislature to a vote in a Parliament session early next year.
The discussions also focused on the need for all parties to achieve a quorum during the session, which Berri may call for next year.
A third session for the subcommittee will be held Tuesday.
Separately, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri will appear in a televised interview next week. He is expected to respond to Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s support of dialogue with the Future Movement which he announced earlier this month.
