Gemayel to Begin Talks with Political Leaders Tuesday to Ensure Presidential Polls are Held
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Kataeb Party chief Amin Gemayel slammed on Monday attempts to thwart the presidential elections, noting that some foreign powers are keener on the elections than Lebanese officials.
He said during a press conference: “We will begin meeting with political leaderships starting on Tuesday in order to avert vacuum.”
He warned that all of Lebanon's achievements over the years would go to waste should powers fail to stage the elections.
Moreover, he said that the accomplishments on the government and security levels should be crowned by holding the polls.
“We must overcome all divisions. These disputes should not obstruct the elections,” demanded Gemayel.
The initiative must therefore be taken to ensure that they are held, he explained.
“We are in agreement with all of our allies on the need to elect a president who is popular among Christians,” said the Kataeb Party leader.
The first round of the presidential elections was held on April 23 with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Democratic Gathering MP Henri Helou the only two officials so far running in the polls.
A candidate needed the vote of 86 lawmakers in order to emerge victorious in the first round.
The second round of the elections was scheduled for April 30, but it was not held over a lack of quorum at parliament after the March 8 alliance, except Speaker Nabih Berri's Development and Liberation bloc, boycotted the session.
Berri scheduled a third session for Wednesday, but observers are expecting it to fail once again over a lack of quorum.
The ongoing divisions between the March 8 and 14 camps over the elections are raising fears of vacuum in the presidency.
President Michel Suleiman's term ends on May 25.
M.T.
S.D.B.
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05 May 2014, 16:38
Gemayel: The security and government stability should be completed by staging the presidential elections.
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05 May 2014, 16:37
Gemayel: We must overcome all divisions and these disputes should not obstruct the elections.
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05 May 2014, 16:36
Gemayel: All of Lebanon's achievements will go to waste if we do not hold the elections.
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05 May 2014, 16:36
Gemayel: Our mission at the moment is aimed at saving the republic.
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05 May 2014, 16:36
Gemayel: We are passing through a critical phase and we must stage the presidential elections. Some sides must take the initiative and ensure that they are held.
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05 May 2014, 16:35
Kataeb Party chief Amin Gemayel during press conference: Some foreign powers are keener on the presidential elections than we are.
05 May 2014, 17:08
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When these guys start talking in the imperative, that we must do this or that and if we do not do what we must then the world will come to an end, you have to take it with a grain of salt. The other day, the Aouni said that Aoun "must be elected" President or dire consequences will happen to Lebanon. It will be the end.
Well, after working in the Lebanon file since 1980, I have news. its never the end. There is always another chapter to be written. Lebanon can survive anything, even its imperative political class.
The solution is simple. Aoun and Geagea are both trying to go through a doorway at the same time. The door is too narrow for both to go through at the same time and neither will cede to the other to go first. The only solution is for both to sit down and agree upon an Aoun/Geagea consenus candidate. That will bring most Christians around and then the others will have to get behind the candidate that both choose.
05 May 2014, 17:11
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To have a Lebanese President "made in Lebanon" it is about the only way. Now if one or the other, Geagea or Aoun get insistent, then, as before they can let the office go void and that would make selection a regional matter and then you get a Lebanese president made in Doha, or Riyadh or Tehran, and if that locks up, then in Paris or DC. But right now DC is preoccupied with Odessa and Ukraine, could care less about the carnage in Syria, and so could care even less about intervening to create a Lebanese President.
Will Aoun and Geagea save the country by both agreeing to one candidate who is other than themselves? Geagea would if Aoun would, but Aoun continues to resist accessing treatment for his mental condition.
