BEIRUT: Rival political leaders meet Monday in a new round of national dialogue, seen as an omen about the fate a doomed Parliament session to elect a president and a Cabinet meeting later this week.

In the meantime, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora Sunday rebuffed Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea’s proposal for the election of MP Michel Aoun as president and choosing former Premier Saad Hariri as Lebanon’s next prime minister, calling it “a strange proposal” that runs contrary to the Constitution.

Speaker Nabih Berri will chair the national dialogue session at his Ain al-Tineh residence, likely to focus on a proposal to create a senate and an administrative decentralization law after the rival leaders had failed in three successive sessions last month to make any breakthroughs in the presidential deadlock and a new vote system.

Berri was quoted as saying by visitors that he would receive from the dialogue parties the names of representatives to a committee tasked with drafting the bylaws of a senate and a parliamentary electoral law.

Berri said he would assign the chairmanship of this committee either to Deputy Speaker Farid Makari or to MP Robert Ghanem, head of the parliamentary Justice and Administration Committee.

Asked to comment on reports that Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil will bring up the thorny issue of the interpretation of the National Charter on equal power sharing between Muslims and Christians during the dialogue session, Berri was quoted as saying: “After we receive the proposed names for the Senate and electoral law committee, each party will be allowed to propose what it wants on the dialogue table. This is its right.”Parliamentary sources in the Free Patriotic Movement said that Bassil, the FPM leader, would ask dialogue members to address the issue of the National Charter’s power-sharing formula before discussing any item on the agenda.

The leaders, from the March 8 and March 14 camps as well as independent politicians, are also expected to resume discussions on Berri’s proposal for a “full-package” deal that includes the election of a president, an agreement on a new electoral law, the shape of a new government and administrative decentralization.

Siniora, the head of the Future Movement’s parliamentary bloc, reiterated his opposition to Berri’s initiative, and spurned Geagea’s proposal for the election of Aoun as president and choosing Hariri as prime minister.

“The package deal runs contrary to the Constitution. We call on all parties to abide by the Constitution,” Siniora, who represents the Future bloc at the national dialogue, told The Daily Star. He insisted that the election of a president should remain the top item on the dialogue agenda.

Referring to Geagea’s proposal, Siniora said: “We reject Dr. Geagea’s proposal. It is a strange proposal that contradicts with the Constitution. What Dr. Geagea is proposing is the appointment of a president and appointment of a prime minister contrary to the rules of the Constitution.

“The Constitution is an arbitrator among the people. Everyone says he is committed to the Constitution, which outlines how to elect a president and choose a prime minister,” he added.

When the presidency post becomes vacant, the Constitution calls on the nation’s lawmakers to go to Parliament to elect a new president, Siniora said.

Similarly, he added, under the Constitution, the president must hold binding consultations with parliamentary blocs to poll them on their choice for a prime minister. The outcome of the president’s consultations will decide the name of the prime minister, he said.

Last month, the Future bloc also rejected a similar offer made by Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah to Hariri over the premiership, saying the Hezbollah chief cannot impose Aoun as a sole candidate for the country’s top Christian post.

“The first actual step toward overcoming the current crisis is neither a [national] dialogue table, which we had tried several times, nor a full package, which we had tried in the past to search but we did not find. … The actual step required is the election of a president,” Geagea said in a speech Saturday following a memorial Mass at his residence in Maarab, north of Beirut, commemorating LF militiamen who were killed during the 1975-90 Civil War.

“Frankly, we find that the solution now is by electing Gen. Aoun for the presidency post and our ally, Saad Hariri, for the premiership,” the LF chief said, drawing applause and cheers from the audience, which included a number of ministers and lawmakers, Future MPs representing Hariri and Siniora, and MPs from the FPM.

Geagea in January announced his support for Aoun’s presidential bid, ending decades of political rivalry and blood feuds between the two main Christian parties. Aoun is Hezbollah’s sole candidate for the presidency and is also supported by some March 8 allies.

Geagea’s endorsement of Aoun’s candidacy earlier this year was viewed as a means to counter Hariri’s support last year for Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh’s nomination for the country’s top Christian post.

Berri has called for a Parliament session Wednesday to choose a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year mandate ended in May 2014. However, this 44th session is doomed to fail like the previous ones over a lack of quorum.

Also, a Cabinet session scheduled for Thursday will be held against the backdrop of a continuing boycott by the FPM’s two ministers, Bassil and Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, over key military appointments.

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour urged the FPM ministers to return to the Cabinet. He also praised Hariri, calling him “a national necessity for all Lebanese.”

“The FPM ministers need to reconsider their decision to boycott Cabinet sessions so that this institution can remain the last fortress of constitutional institutions to protect the nation and citizens,” Abu Faour said in a speech during a graduation ceremony held the Al-Manara School in the western Bekaa Valley.