The presidential elections is not a local affair, it awaits a foreign queue; the case has always been the same since Lebanon was granted independence, bar one exception when President Suleiman Frangieh reached the presidency after a democratic battle that gained him edge by a narrow margin of a single vote, MP Walid Jumblat said.
Jumblat claims that the presidential elections are delayed until further notice or until the US, Saudi, Iran and Russia clinch the deal.
Jumblat reels back historic stops in his weekly remarks in Assafir, reminding of how Qatar was able during Doha convention in Spring 2008, and through its ties with Syria, Iran and Saudi, to endorse an internal settlement that lead to the election of president and approval of the parliamentary electoral bill.
“We used to stay up late till dawn in Doha at al-Haram hotel, scouring for a passageway out of the crisis, but today there’s not a single state that can or wants to sponsor a new deal in the wake of the vertiginous regional and global alignment,” Jumblat put in plain words.
He quickly quips smiling, “perhaps this time we can head to Sotchi since Russian has become a sturdy player of late, ever since it decided to launch its military campaign in Syria.”
Before Yemen’s war subsides, Lebanese parties will not reach consensus over a presidential candidate, Jumblat claims, dumbfounded as to why some factions would keep insisting on obstructing what is left of the governing institution before the presidential impasse is resolved, although knowing that the exit key is not within their reach.
“If the decision is not ours in regard to the presidency, there is no excuse that would prevents us from shouldering the least of our responsibilities, within the possible margin, so as to ferry down this phase with the least possible losses and damages,” Jumblat upbraided. “It is no longer acceptable to remain impotent in face of our crises, the trash file, the governmental obstruction, and the parliamentary paralysis and risk losing millions of dollars in grants and loans.”
He attests that Speaker Nabih Berri may be the only politician who’s making tremendous effort to budge the hull of the crisis, by searching for a settlement that combines the military promotions according to the 1979 law and the reactivation of the government’s work, and the revival of legislative sessions in the parliament.
We were closing on a deal last time had it not been for Future movement Chief Fouad Siniora’s objection, he noted.
What is the most striking about Jumblat’s remarks may be his declaration of his support to Aoun’s presidential candidacy, without coercion or intimidation.
“I do not object to electing Aoun as president although I hardly believe he could relieve the Lebanese conflicts since the prerogatives of the president have become limited whereby he can only suspend a decree for a set period while the Cabinet has the power to simply shelve it.”
But the trouble stems from interfaith sensitivity, the Sunni will not accept Aoun just like Shiite cannot recognize Samir Geagea as president,” he argued.
Jumblat call on factions “to stop using the line ‘the strong president’ which we all have tried and felt his destructive impact, with the equation of the president with the largest popular representation in his own sect and who is accepted by other sects at the time.”
Alluding to his preliminary assessment of the dialogue sessions, Jumblat hails the sane, transparent, straight-forward, and bold Frangieh, who discloses what in his mind without beating about the bush.
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