Sfeir urges politicians to “adhere to Constitution” and elect president
Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said Sunday that breaching the Constitution caused “lots of troubles” in Lebanon. “Let us all hope that our politicians adhere to the Constitution and take the initiative to elect a president who would run the state before it”s too late,” Sfeir said during his Sunday sermon at the Notre Dame Church in Bkirki.
Lawmakers had been set to meet on Saturday to vote for a new head of state, but the session was put off the previous night until December 29.
Sfeir had conveyed his Christmas message Friday, calling for abandoning hatred, feuding and what he described as “cheap exploitation” and “narrow interests,” while also calling for helping the needy. Sfeir said the presidency “has been lost for more than a month while we have not been able to elect a head of state for the first time in the history of the republic.”
The country has been without a president since Emile Lahoud”s term expired on November 23 without rival camps agreeing on a successor.
The government and the opposition have agreed on Lebanese Army commander General Michel Suleiman as the man for the job, but remain at odds over the election process and the shape of a new government.
The opposition is demanding a “basket” of guarantees on the new government line-up ahead of any vote.
The ruling coalition has insisted that deciding the make-up of the cabinet is a prerogative of the new president, traditionally drawn from the Maronite Christian community, which has expressed fears for its role in the Muslim-majority country.
“Parliament has been crippled for more than a year and the government is incapacitated, with some of its ministers failing to carry out their duties, only fulfilling the duties they like to perform,” Sfeir said. “Isn”t it time to wake up and see the fatal vacuum that we have reached?”
Sfeir also warned “we might destroy our country due to conflicts and discords between us.
“How could we destroy our democratic regime and the freedom that has been granted to us [by that regime] and that may not be found in countries around us?” Sfeir asked.
“How did we reach this stage of abuse of power and we are about to destroy the “vitals” of the nation due to conflicts and skirmishes among us?”
“The nation is for all,” he added. “Let”s have mercy on it so it will have mercy on us and on our future generations.”