Qassem: No Point in Holding Presidential Election Sessions if Current Conditions Persist
Hizbullah deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem noted on Wednesday that the current conditions in Lebanon are not appropriate to stage the presidential elections.
He said: “There is therefore no point to hold presidential election sessions if these conditions persist.”
“Whether a second, third, or fourth session is held and if the circumstances remain, the result will remain clear and that is that a president will not be elected,” he added.
Moreover, Qassem said that the first presidential election session, held on April 17, demonstrated that one's nomination for the elections “does not clear one's history.”
He made his remark in reference to Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea's nomination and his role in Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.
“A person's history cannot be erased through putting on a show by running in the elections. On the contrary, his candidacy will only remind the people of his negative aspects,” said the Hizbullah official.
Returning to the presidential elections, he said that the current sectarian reality and political divide in Lebanon do not allow a single party from electing its own president.
“We are therefore better off electing a president through an agreement,” he stressed.
“Such agreements are made through contacts outside of the parliamentary session in order for the foes to reach common ground,” Qassem explained.
“The foes should agree on a president who is strong on popular, political, and moral levels, who does not provoke others, but instead seeks solutions to problems, who works for national partnership, and who defends Lebanon and its resistance,” he added.
Lawmakers once again failed on Wednesday to elect a new president as differences between the March 8 and 14 alliances led to a lack of quorum in the second parliamentary session aimed at choosing a new head of state.
While the March 14 camp held onto its candidate Geagea, the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance, except for Speaker Nabih Berri's Development and Liberation bloc, boycotted the second round of the elections over lack of consensus on one candidate.
Berri set May 7 for a third round of voting.
M.T.
S.D.B.
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