Berri Backs Jumblat Proposal on 'National Aspect' of Presidential Polls
Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he backed a proposal made by Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat to give Lebanon's presidential elections a wider patriotic aspect rather than limiting its discussion to Christians.
But in remarks published in several local newspapers on Monday, Berri stressed that no solution was looming in the horizon on the presidential deadlock.
Lebanon has been without a head of state since May last year when President Michel Suleiman's term ended. The rival MPs have been unable to elect a successor over their differences on a compromise candidate.
The country's top Christian post is reserved for Christian Maronites in accordance with the National Pact of 1943.
Jumblat made his proposal in his weekly editorial in the PSP's al-Anbaa electronic magazine on Sunday.
He reiterated on Monday that the election of a president is not just a Christian responsibility.
“It is the responsibility of the country’s all factions and we should not continue to neglect it,” the PSP chief told An Nahar daily.
He denied however that he was referring to Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, who are both presidential candidates.
In the remarks, which Berri made to his visitors and were published in the newspapers on Monday, the speaker said the campaign to remove party banners, flags and portraits was “more successful than we expected.”
The campaign was the result of the dialogue held between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement under Berri's sponsorship in Ain el-Tineh.
Berri also said that a security plan for the eastern Bekaa Valley is ready and is awaiting the right time for the Lebanese army and security forces to implement it.
The issue was discussed in the latest round of talks between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal, he said.
The date of the next session hasn't been set yet, Berri added.
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