BEIRUT: The Future Movement’s parliamentary bloc pleaded Tuesday with rival political leaders to reach consensus over the election of a new president as the only way to end the 9-month-old presidential vacuum, which has paralyzed Parliament’s legislation and crippled the government’s work.
The bloc also accused the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition and MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement of indirectly contributing to the rise of extremist and terrorist movements in Lebanon by obstructing the presidential vote with their consistent boycott of Parliament sessions over the past nine months.
Yet, the bloc upheld its dialogue with Hezbollah, hoping the talks would lead to breaking the presidential stalemate.
“As more than nine months have passed since the presidential vacancy took hold and 19 attempts to elect a president did not yield any positive result, the bloc again stresses that the main and essential mission of the political parties should be to work to reach a consensus on the election of a new president,” the bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
It added that ending the vacuum in the country’s top Christian post was essential to restore balance and order to constitutional institutions and state departments and put an end to the confusion that has crippled the government’s work in the absence of a president who “symbolizes the nation’s unity and safeguards the country’s independence, its territorial integrity and safety.”
“The political parties that have prevented successive electoral sessions with their continued absence and subsequently, blocked the election of a president, are responsible for disrupting the state’s functioning and are behind the deterioration of its authority, its prestige, and eventually its gradual dissolution,” it said.
“They have become responsible for exposing the whole nation to all kinds of threats and indirectly contributing to the growth of extremist and terrorist movements,” it added, in a clear allusion to ISIS and Nusra Front militants who have frequently clashed with the Lebanese Army in areas near the border with Syria. The two groups are still holding 25 Lebanese soldiers and policemen hostage on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.
The bloc’s statement was referring to MPs from Aoun’s bloc and Hezbollah’s bloc and its March 8 allies who have thwarted a quorum for Parliament sessions since April by consistently boycotting the sessions, demanding an agreement beforehand with their March 14 rivals on a consensus candidate for the presidency.
The bloc stressed the need, until a new president is elected, for commitment to the rules of the Constitution concerning the government’s work “without devising new precedents or norms that would further complicate the functioning of state institutions.” It also referred to the current row among ministers over the Cabinet’s decision-making mechanism, which has also prevented it from meeting for a second consecutive week.
“The government’s work must proceed smoothly without falling into the trap of obstruction and paralysis as is the case now with the current Cabinet’s work,” it said.
The bloc pledged to continue its dialogue with Hezbollah on “the basis of advancing toward the election of a new president and reaching practical steps on the ground to reduce tensions, comfort citizens and protect their interests and the state’s interests in guaranteeing its sovereignty over all its territories and border.”
The two rival parties have so far held six rounds of talks designed to defuse Sunni-Shiite tensions stoked by the war in Syria.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said bickering and obstruction among ministers were to blame for Cabinet’s lack of productivity.
Speaking during a meeting with the new board of the Press Federation, led by its head Aouni Kaaki, Salam said he was keen on ensuring the smooth functioning of the government, refuting allegations that he was seeking to normalize the presidential vacuum.
“I don’t want anyone to think that I want a government practice that will confirm the [presidential] vacuum. But at the same time, we need to proceed with the work and handle people’s affairs,” Kaaki quoted Salam as saying.
“The government was formed under very difficult conditions, and it was supposed to be a temporary one but it has lived on amid obstruction of a presidential poll and failure to hold general elections,” Salam added.
Asked why he did not call for a Cabinet session this week, Salam said: “When obstruction and bickering are dominant, what is the use of holding unproductive sessions? I have felt over the past seven months that the atmosphere inside the Cabinet did not help much in productivity.”
Salam reiterated calls for electing a president, stressing that “the Lebanese can ultimately resolve their problems by themselves and carry out elections, primarily the presidential poll.”
“Our Constitution is clear, but weakness lies in the application. We only have to implement the Constitution in order to achieve solutions,” Salam said. “The nature of political life in Lebanon does not allow one faction to defeat the other, but consensus should prevail, also over the presidential election.”
Speaking after a weekly meeting of the parliamentary Change and Reform bloc chaired by Aoun, MP Ibrahim Kanaan from the FPM called for the government to continue its work, saying its paralysis is harmful, “but we must not consider the presence or absence of a president as the same thing,” he said.
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