Shaaban Bilal (Cairo)
International and local calls have increased to accelerate the completion of the presidential election in Lebanon after more than a year and a half of vacuum, to complete the state’s constitutional institutions and confront the economic and social collapse and regional and international challenges.
Lebanese parliamentarian Dr. Najat Saliba considered that electing a president of the republic represents a constitutional duty that the House of Representatives has failed to fulfill until this moment, explaining that this authority is unable to accomplish anything without external interference and pressure.
Saliba added to Al-Ittihad that the first importance of electing the president lies in Lebanon’s urgent need for regular functioning of institutions more than ever before, most notably the Presidency of the Republic, as the country today faces a deadly vacuum that cannot be continued. The second importance lies in the need to sit at the table. Negotiations, and the Parliament does not allow the Lebanese to give up their right to self-determination.
The Lebanese Parliament called on the representatives to go to the Council and elect a President of the Republic immediately, in accordance with Articles 74 and 75 of the Constitution and to prevent Lebanon from being placed under new guardianships from which it will not be spared this time.
Electing a president for Lebanon requires consensus among political forces to secure the support of a majority of members of the House of Representatives, something Parliament has failed to do 12 times so far.
For his part, former Lebanese parliamentarian Mustafa Alloush believes that the situation of electing the president of the republic has not changed since before the presidential vacancy, and it is linked to Hezbollah’s insistence on its candidate, without regard to the existing local and regional balances.
Alloush told Al-Ittihad that achieving the presidential election is almost impossible, in light of the current local and regional circumstances, without there being any convergence in the positions of the parties related to this file, while no solution appears on the horizon yet.
The efforts of the five-member committee, which includes five countries, including France and the United States, did not yield positive results regarding the consensus of the political parties on electing a president for the Lebanese Republic, despite the committee confirming the existence of a convergence of views.
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