Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri affirmed that “completing the presidential file has become a national, human and moral duty,” noting that “the country is afflicted, and its situation is descending from bad to worse.” Berri told the Lebanese newspaper, Al-Jumhuriya, in its issue issued today, Saturday, that: “The country is afflicted, and its situation is descending from bad to worse, and the sin of obstruction exacerbated the collapse, whose devastating effects are now threatening the country’s present and future, and therefore the situation cannot continue as it is.”
He added, “Completing the presidential file has become a national, human, and moral duty, hence the initiative to announce support for the candidacy of the head of the Marada movement, Suleiman Franjieh, a step that may motivate all parties to present a candidate or candidates.” He continued, “It has become necessary for nominations to take place, which is self-evident, in order for competition to take place, and we are ready to go down to the parliament, as the moment the opportunity for competition becomes available, I will immediately call for an electoral session, and for elections to take place and whoever succeeds will succeed.”
He said: “I held eleven sessions, and as we witnessed all of them, they were nothing but theatrical sessions, rather a farce, and therefore I am not ready to call for any session in which the play and the farce are repeated, they were all, and I say that no session will be held except in the presence of competition.” He added, “Their argument was that our team does not want to be elected, and this is not true. We were and still are stressing on electing a president, and providing all the conditions that enable us to agree on one or two or more candidates and go down to the parliament and elect. In any case, I said that our candidate is Minister Suleiman Franjieh, let them go ahead and agree on one or more candidates, and let us go down to the parliament and rule the democratic game in an atmosphere of healthy competition, and elect the president of the republic.” In response to a question about the possibility of securing a quorum for the election session, especially since some parties announced that they would violate the quorum, Berri said: “Whoever does not complete the quorum, in this case must bear responsibility.”
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