“Almost ready:” MPs from both sides polish amendment to open door for Suleiman

 

 

Ten MPs should present a petition to amend the Constitution at Parliament”s Tuesday session, in order to allow the Lebanese Armed Forces commander, General Michel Suleiman, to become president, an opposition MP said on Sunday.

 

If rival factions reach political agreement on the amendment mechanism by Tuesday, the day could witness both a vote on the amendment and a session to elect a new president. The intended signing of the petition by five government MPs and five opposition deputies would also signal agreement on some of the other contentious issues that have divided the camps, such as the composition of the Cabinet to follow Suleiman”s expected election.

 

MP Ali Khreis of Speaker Nabih Berri”s Development and Liberation Bloc, said Suleiman”s candidacy was a fait accompli, adding that the country is “at the gateway to a solution.”

 

“The amendment mechanism is almost ready,” Khreis said. “We accepted the idea of a petition presented by 10 MPs, five from the opposition and five from the majority.”

 

He added that Amal MPs would be the first to sign.

 

The procedure had snagged on the government”s required role. The March 8 opposition has branded the Cabinet unconstitutional and illegitimate since six opposition ministers resigned in November 2006. Opposition MPs had refused to send a draft amendment to a government they do not recognize.

 

Aoun, a christian oppisition leader had demanded the election proceed according to an initiative he proposed, while Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir evidently chastised the retired general during his Sunday sermon.

 

“People seldom attain all they desire and thus ought to be content with what is achievable without asking for the impossible,” Sfeir said. Aoun”s plan for a comprehensive political settlement before the presidential election was refused by the March 14 ruling coalition.

 

“Ambition is laudable, but if it exceeds certain limits it enters the realm of fantasy,” Sfeir added. “No one can surrender to his own fantasies. Otherwise he would be suspending reality.” Sfeir said the people were waiting with “bated breath” for the presidential election and were looking forward to the stability and security a new head of state would bring.

 

“If an amendment is absolutely necessary, there is no objection,” Sfeir said. “If the choice is between a vacuum or an amendment, then an amendment is preferable to a void.”

 

External pressure on legislators to reach agreement intensified Friday as the US State Department expressed regret at the latest postponement of the presidential vote and urged legislators to overcome their differences quickly. Friday”s abortive Parliament session marked the seventh postponement of the election.
 

Beirut Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar said Sunday that Suleiman “embodies the specifications of the next president as outlined by Bkirki.”

 

March 14 presidential candidate MP Butros Harb said new political alliances would emerge with the election of a new president. While MPs would not oppose the president, they could oppose the new government, its policies and program, he added.

 

“It is in no one”s interest for Lebanon”s president to start his term weak. The president is the symbol of Lebanon”s unity … even if he is elected via a mechanism that contradicts our conviction,” Harb said.

 

Harb said amending the Constitution was a matter of principle for him, adding that had the amendment been out of a real national need, he would have been the first to ask for it.

 

“But what is happening seems like a political deal which the Constitution is being used to push through. In this case I am opposed to the amendment, and my stance has nothing to do with the new president or my political opinion of him,” Harb told  supporters Sunday at his hometown of Batroun.

 

The army chief assured Harb in a recent telephone conversation that he had no intention of accepting “conditions placed on him by political parties,” conditions which Harb said were being touted as strengthening the presidency while in fact they weaken it. Harb said Suleiman”s position was encouraging.

 

Harb offered his services to “assist” Suleiman in the presidency, adding that as the army commander comes from a military background and adheres to the principles of “honor, sacrifice and fidelity,” he might need someone to assist and advise him in the political domain.

 

Harb said his alliance with the Lebanese Forces, which brought him to Parliament, still stood, but at the same time he called on the March 14 alliance to organize its ranks to better face future challenges.