BEIRUT: Lebanon’s political system is threatened with complete failure because of one party’s stubbornness over the presidential vote, Telecoms Minister Boutros Harb said Friday.
“The status quo in the country now is the result of a political party that is clinging to its refusal to hold the presidential election unless the results were revealed to be in the party’s favor beforehand,” Harb said, in a clear reference to the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun.
Aoun is the undeclared candidate for the March 8 coalition, but he and his allies refuse to attend parliamentary sessions to elect a new president until a consensus is reached between the rival camps.
After visiting Speaker Nabih Berri Friday, the minister said that "it is well-known that if parliamentary elections took place, and this is what we were hoping for, then the current government would immediately resign.”
The absence of a president, however, would complicate the formation of a new Cabinet, since the president’s prerogatives include parliamentary consultations over appointing a prime minister and issuing the decree calling to form a new Cabinet.
The vacancy in the presidency since former President Michel Sleiman's term ended on May 25 “puts the country in a constitutional stalemate and would make the political system vulnerable to failure” he said.
"This is what disrupts the whole process of electing a president of the republic” he said, while acknowledging that the disruption has negative implications on power sharing and parliamentary elections.
Harb called on rival factions to look for solutions that would protect the political system from a total collapse.
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