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Row may delay Lebanon poll
10/12/2007 19:07 - (SA)
Beirut - Lebanese politicians on Monday cast doubt on whether MPs would gather the following day to elect the country's army chief as president because of continued wrangling between rival parties.
Barring a last-minute deal, Tuesday's parliamentary session could be postponed for a few days, or even until early next year, several officials said.
It would be the eighth time the vote has been postponed for lack of agreement between the Western-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition on who should succeed Emile Lahoud, whose term ended on November 23.
"We are still waiting, but I don't think there will be a vote tomorrow," MP Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of the bloc of Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, told AFP.
As-Safir newspaper, close to the opposition, said Tuesday's session would most probably be postponed until Friday while the leading An-Nahar daily predicted it could be delayed until early next year.
Amending the constitution
The ruling coalition and the opposition, backed by Syria and Iran, have agreed to give the post to army chief General Michel Sleiman but they are bickering on how to amend the constitution to allow for his election and over the make-up of a new cabinet.
"I think that the parliament session will be postponed because there seems to be no agreement until now between the two parties, especially on the constitutional amendment," independent MP Robert Ghanem told AFP.
Article 49 of the constitution stipulates that an acting senior public servant can not be elected president unless 10 MPs petition parliament for a constitutional amendment.
The amendment would have to be approved by two-thirds of parliament and also endorsed by the government.
But since 2006 the opposition considers as illegitimate the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora when it pulled its six ministers from the cabinet in a bid to gain more representation.
Parliament 'should suspend clause'
To ease the crisis, the opposition has proposed that "due to the extenuating circumstances in the country, parliament suspends just for once the clause of Article 49," an opposition source told AFP.
"This way, the government, which we consider illegitimate, will not need to have a say in the amended constitution," said the source on condition of anonymity.
On Saturday, Ghanem and fellow MP and former justice minister Bahige Tabbara submitted to parliament speaker and opposition leader Nabih Berri a draft petition, hoping it would be signed by 10 deputies - five from each side.
"The petition has been prepared and it is now in president Berri's hands," Ghanem said.
Kanaan said "it is highly unlikely for Tuesday's session to be held as there is still disagreement on the mechanism of the constitutional amendment between president Berri and (ruling majority leader) Saad Hariri."
"There is also still disagreement on an overall political understanding between the opposition and the majority, including on the new electoral law, the constitutional council and the next government," he said.
The opposition said the election of a new president must be preceded by an overall agreement on important political issues, including the shape of the next government.
So many disagreements
But the majority insists that all political matters should be discussed within national institutions such as parliament and the government, following the election of a new president.
"How can the new president rule if there would be so many disagreements? Will he be able to bridge the gap between the opposition and the majority when there is so little trust between the two sides? Of course not," Kanaan said.
"We have to reach a general understanding and we need to have it on paper, so that once a president is elected we don't get stuck on conflicts over the make-up of the government or other important matters," he said.
The standoff is Lebanon's worst internal crisis since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war and is widely seen as an extension of the regional confrontation pitting the US against Syria and Iran.
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