Nayla Tueni to Aoun: You Have No Right to Ask Candidates to Withdraw
Parliamentary candidate Nayla Tueni lashed back Tuesday at MP Gen. Michel Aoun for asking her to withdraw from the electoral race saying he had no right to issue such calls.
Tueni was reacting to Aoun”s remarks Monday when he said the young candidate "did not have enough political know-how to handle" the challenges of the upcoming phase. Tueni, who is An-Nahar newspaper assistant general director, is running for the Orthodox seat in Ashrafieh in the June 7 polls.
While Aoun has the right to choose his contenders, however, "he has no legal, political or moral right to ask any candidate to withdraw his (or her) nomination," Tueni said.
"Only the candidates themselves have the right (to make that choice)," she added.
She took a swipe at Aoun for using her age as a pretext and asked: "Doesn”t his argument apply to the hundreds, even thousands, of his young supporters?
"By addressing me, was Aoun implying that he wants to distance young members of the Free Patriotic Movement from the legitimate aspiration to work in parliament?"
Aoun also said candidates vying for the Orthodox seat in Ashrafieh do not represent the "true spirit of Beirut or of Ashrafieh."
In response, Tueni wondered whether "Ashrafieh truly lacked qualified representatives or has Aoun”s (electoral) alliances in Hasbayya led him to underestimate the sons of Ashrafieh and insult them in this manner."
She then called on all contenders not to choose "uncivilized methods and campaigns similar to those practiced against her father, the late Gebran Tueni by Gen. Aoun supporters" during of the 2005 elections.