Kataeb Rejects Replacing Presidential Vote with Parliamentary Elections

The Kataeb Party on Monday rejected suggestions to resort to parliamentary elections as an exit out of the ongoing presidential vacuum crisis.

“We refuse to give up on the possibility of holding the presidential elections or to resort to parliamentary elections as a substitute,” said a statement issued after the weekly meeting of the party's political bureau.

“We stress that one does not negate another,” the party added.

The statement appears to be in response to recent remarks by Change and Reform bloc MP Alain Aoun, who said the country should head to parliamentary polls in order to prevent a protracted presidential vacuum.

“The priority is for the election of a president, but should that not be possible, we must hold parliamentary elections,” said Aoun, who is a member of the bloc led by Free Patriotic Movement chief and presidential hopeful MP Michel Aoun.

In its Monday statement, the Kataeb Party noted that "the government is facing a critical phase in light of the responsibilities it is obliged to shoulder, topped by the election of a president and maintaining stability.”

The party also pointed out that the recent initiative launched by its leader Amin Gemayel regarding the presidential impasse “is still ongoing and has moved to the national level amid continued contacts between Maronite leaders.”

Parliament had failed to elect a successor to president Michel Suleiman -- whose six-year term ended on May 25 -- despite having held five electoral sessions for that purpose.

Until the moment only Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Democratic Gathering MP Henri Helou have announced official presidential nominations, while Aoun has insisted that he will only run in the race as a “consensual candidate.”

Aoun's demand and the March 8 camp's rejection of Geagea's nomination prompted the Hizbullah-led March 8 forces to boycott four electoral sessions that required a quorum of two thirds of the 128-member legislature.

Y.R.

M.T.