Miqati, Salam, Ex-Premiers Deem Higher Islamic Council Elections as 'Illegal'

A meeting of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Premier-designate Tammam Salam, and former Premiers Fouad Saniora and Omar Karami deemed on Wednesday the recent Higher Islamic Council elections as “illegal.”

They said after a meeting at the Grand Serail: “Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani not only violated Shura Council decisions to halt the elections, but his call to hold them and manner in which they were staged constituted a violation of all laws on the matter.”

The gatherers stressed that they had advised the mufti against calling for the elections and therefore announced that they will not recognize them or their results.

They decided that the results of the Higher Islamic Council will not be published in Lebanese dailies.

They announced that they will keep their meetings ongoing to discuss the measures that “need to be taken to confront illegal practices and maintain the Sunni sect through the institution of Dar al-Fatwa and its various authorities.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Qabbani had approved the results of Sunday's elections in which candidates of the Higher Islamic Council had won uncontested.

He had said on Sunday that the controversial elections for the 32-member Higher Islamic Council were legitimate and a decision by the Shura Council to cancel the polls was not binding, while the boycotters slammed the vote as "illegitimate."

He stressed: “The polls are legitimate and we are not concerned with the opinion of the Shura Council.”

“Our hand is extended to everyone,” he said. “We don't have political differences with anyone.”

Later on Sunday, the boycotters of the elections held a meeting at the office of the head of the Administrative and Financial Committee Bassam Barghout in the Beirut neighborhood of Sanayeh.

“The legal quorum was not available at all polling stations, where the so-called uncontested win of certain candidates was announced,” said a statement recited by the incumbent deputy head of the council Omar Mesqawi.

“We praise everyone who boycotted this election and withdrew from the polls which can only take place through the unity of the institution,” the statement added.

The conferees announced that the council will remain in a state of permanent convention.

The Council, which elects the mufti and organizes the affairs of Dar al-Fatwa, has been at the center of controversy after 21 of its members, who are close to ex-Premier Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement, extended its term until the end of 2013 despite Qabbani's objection.

The mufti has refused to hold or join any meetings at Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon’s top Sunni religious authority, and called for the elections of council members.

But last month the Shura Council allegedly deemed the call illegal and canceled the elections. Its decision followed a similar move it made last year when it canceled previous polls set by the Mufti for December 30.

Mesqawi was quoted earlier on Sunday as expressing regret for the failure of the Mufti to react positively to the Shura council's decision.

He made the last appeal for the remaining candidates to withdraw their candidacies and for voters not to participate in the electoral process.