MP Mustafa Allouch: March 14 MPs will attend today’s session

 

MP Mustafa Allouch said that March 14 MPs will attend today’s presidential session. “There seems to be hope that a solution will be reached in the coming hours,” he told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.

 

Allouch noted that even though the solution is a hybrid one, there is still hope. “Yet, such a solution could be constitutionally challenged in the future,” he added.

 

Lebanese dailies An-Nahar and Al-Liwaa reported that the expected solution will consist of the parliament, as the only body that can legally interpret the constitution, deciding that Article 49 is no longer valid.

 

Article 49 of the constitution stipulates that grade-one civil servants cannot run for president unless they resigned from their post two years ahead of the elections.

 

Although the opposition and March 14 have agreed on Army Commander General Michel Sleiman’s election as president, the debate over the appropriate procedure to amend Article 49 is ongoing.

 

According to the dailies, the parliament will declare that under the current circumstances, Article 49 no longer applies, and Sleiman could be elected without a constitutional amendment.

 

Commenting on this solution, Allouch said, “We will accept anything that would preserve the interest of the Lebanese people.”

 

He also said that there is a 50% chance that a president will be elected today.