FPM Convoys Roam Streets ahead of Friday Demo
The Free Patriotic Movement staged another motorized protest on Wednesday to mobilize supporters ahead of Friday's downtown Beirut demonstration.
The convoys gathered outside the Mirna Chalouhi Center in Sin el-Fil before roaming several towns and villages in the Metn region.
LBCI television said one of the convoys briefly blocked the presidential palace's main entrance in Baabda to demand the election of a “strong president.”
State-run National News Agency meanwhile said Republican Guard troops took strict security measures around the palace “over reports that young men from the FPM will head to the presidential palace.”
FPM supporters also staged a motorized protest in several coastal and mountainous Keserwan areas, NNA said.
The agency said meetings aimed at preparing for Friday's demo were held at the FPM office in the Mirna Chalouhi Center. Ministers Jebran Bassil and Elias Bou Saab and MPs Ibrahim Kanaan and Nabil Nicolas took part in the meetings.
The movement has organized several similar protests in recent weeks. One of the demos descended into clashes with security forces that left several troops and protesters injured.
Last Friday, FPM chief MP Michel Aoun reiterated his call for the election of a president through a popular rather than a parliamentary vote. He also invited FPM supporters to carry out a protest next Friday “to ask for reform and for participation in decision-making, and to call for fighting corruption.”
The demonstration is scheduled to be held at 5:30 pm in downtown Beirut's Martyrs Square.
Aoun also called for the approval of an electoral law based on proportional representation and the formation of a government that introduces reforms.
In recent months, the FPM chief has slammed what he calls the “marginalization” of Christians in state institutions, amid a dispute in cabinet over military appointments and another over the government's decision-making mechanism amid the absence of a president.
The disputes prompted Aoun and his ministers to accuse Prime Minister Tammam Salam of infringing on the jurisdiction of the Christian president.
Y.R.
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