Aoun: Country Must be Built upon National Pact, Balanced Participation of All Sects

Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun stressed Sunday that the country must be built upon the principles of the National Pact and the “balanced participation of all sects.”

“Building the country should happen at the hands of competent people who rise above personal gains and enjoy the highest levels of integrity, transparency, fairness and objectivity,” said Aoun addressing an FPM rally in Baabda via video link from Rabieh.

The mass rally was marking the anniversary of the 1990 ouster of Aoun from the presidential palace at the hands of Syrian forces.

“The first step in building the country should be commitment to the Constitution, the National Pact, the laws and the guaranteed and balanced participation of all sects without injustice, isolation or marginalization,” Aoun added.

“The building of the country should be through hearing people's scream regarding their daily concerns and through listening to the young generation,” he went on to say.

This year's rally was held under slogans urging respect for the 1943 National Pact, which is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on Christian-Muslim partnership.

Aoun served as the head of one of two rival governments contending for power in Lebanon from 1988 to October 1990.

He declared a so-called “liberation war” against Syrian forces stationed in Lebanon on March 14, 1989. On October 13, 1990, he was ousted from the presidential palace after the Syrian forces invaded the areas that were under his control.

Aoun's chances to be elected president have largely surged in recent days and Education Minister Elias Bou Saab of the FPM announced Sunday that al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri has officially decided to endorse Aoun's presidential bid.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate 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 the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.