BEIRUT: Future Movement Secretary General Ahmad Hariri defended his party's lawmakers who voted last week to approve Parliament's extension by more than two years, telling AUB student supporters that holding elections during a presidential vacuum was never an option.
“The reason [Future] voted for the extension is not that we are afraid of elections as some people claim,” Hariri told a crowd of student leaders and supporters from AUB Thursday.
“But in the case of extension, our position was clear from the beginning, which is that oppose conducting elections during presidential vacuum.”
Hariri also attacked his political rivals Hezbollah, Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement, accusing them of obstruction.
“There is a political faction that wants to drag the country into total void, while it aims at amending the Constitution and achieve the tripartite power sharing formula,” he said.
A tripartite formula calls for a 33-33-33 distribution of Christians, Shiites and Sunnis in Parliament. The current system, based on the country’s 1943 National Pact, give half the seats to Christians, and the other half to Muslims.
“In parallel, another faction wants to generalize vacuum, and extend its duration, according to the logic that gives two choices: either him becoming president or keeping the state without a head,” he said in reference to FPM chief Michel Aoun.
Hariri’s meeting with the students was held at the old Kantari presidential palace, and came five days before AUB student council elections.
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