Mustaqbal Says Presidency, Premiership National Issues, Not Sectarian

W460

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed Tuesday that the election of the president and the designation of the prime minister are national issues and not “sectarian” issues.

“The election of the president is a national issue par excellence and not a sectarian issue, seeing is the president is the head of the state, the symbol of the country's unity and the guardian of the Constitution,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

“The election of the parliament speaker and the designation of the prime minister are national issues that are not confined to the interests of any sect,” Mustaqbal added.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had recently announced that his party is willing the accept the re-designation of al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri as premier in return for the election of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun as president and the re-election of Speaker Nabih Berri as head of parliament.

Hariri had nominated Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to his bigger parliamentary bloc and larger influence in the Christian community.

In its statement on Tuesday, Mustaqbal slammed Hizbullah's “systematic stances and fierce deliberate attack against al-Mustaqbal Movement to demand it to elect General Michel Aoun as president.”

“Hizbullah is trying to impose the appointment of this candidate on the Lebanese, asking them to choose between General Aoun's election or the continued vacuum and chaos,” the bloc added.

“The real solution to this grueling crisis that Hizbullah and the FPM are creating and aggravating lies in returning to the correct priority, which is the priority of electing a president according to the democratic rules stipulated by the Constitution,” Mustaqbal said.

Comments 1
Missing humble 31 August 2016, 02:50

Even under partition or federal state, I would not want a mentally disequilibrated person living on high drugs to be my president.