Bkirki: All Four Maronite Leaders are Candidates in Presidential Elections
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A meeting of Maronite leaders held at Bkirki on Friday stressed the need to hold the presidential elections on time and according to the constitution, it said in a statement on Saturday.
A Bkirki media spokesman told reporters that all four of the Maronite leaders, Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, Kataeb Party chief Amin Gemayel, and Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh are candidates in the elections.
“The gatherers urged the need to elect a president who holds Lebanon's interests at heart and who can effectively carry out his national duties,” he said in a statement.
“They will oppose any concession or settlement that will undermine Lebanon's interests,” he added.
The Christian leaders will continue to follow up on developments linked to the polls with Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.
The seat of the Maronite church in Bkirki witnessed Friday evening a meeting between top Maronite leaders, amid the absence of Geagea for “security reasons.”
Bkirki's spokesman said on Saturday that the LF chief informed al-Rahi that he will consent to what the gatherers agree on.
Al-Rahi on Tuesday announced that he will not nominate a certain candidate for the presidency, calling for the election of a president who is able to “heal the rifts” among the Lebanese.
“We're working with everyone to secure holding the presidential vote on time. MPs have a two-month deadline to elect a president and nothing prevents holding the first session to elect the president on Monday,” al-Rahi said.
President Michel Suleiman's tenure ends in May 2014 but the constitutional period to elect a new head of state begins on March 25.
Geagea announced Friday that Speaker Nabih Berri will call for a parliamentary session to elect a new president once a delegation he has tasked to communicate with all parties finishes its mission.
Al-Rahi had urged Berri to convene a legislative session as soon as possible to elect a new head of state.
The patriarch will be the only religious leader with whom Berri's envoys would meet given that the 1943 power-sharing agreement states the president should be a Maronite.
29 March 2014, 12:25
00
the person who got the majority of Christian votes should be president
that is democracy
democracy all over the arab world
29 March 2014, 12:44
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when there is a meeting and a person do not come , and goes somewhere else, he is out of the game
who attend the meeting is a candidate who does not is nothing
29 March 2014, 13:50
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democracy=people power
so if we consider ourselves democratic the president should be the one with most Christian representation (like the prime minister and head of parliament are respectively the representative of their majority
do the same for the presidency
god bless Lebanon and democracy
29 March 2014, 14:20
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Mr administrator
banning my posts which are very respectfull shows how narrow minded you are and the people who are paying you
god bless democracy and freedom of speech
29 March 2014, 14:34
35
That's a simple answer ya FD. It's because he doesn't have blood on his hands, he is honest, he is not corrupt, he is respectful, and the biggest one... He would more than likely unite the Christians. That's why not Baroud! Unfortunately Lebanon will always be run by warlords, illiterates, playboys and persons with illusions of grandeur!
29 March 2014, 15:10
13
We the People do not want any of the them, nor do we want Berri as Parliament Speaker. We want fresh faces and term limits on political service. With term limits, by the the time the new faces become powerful and learn how to steal then their term is over and we start fresh again. Enough of the same old same old.
29 March 2014, 15:11
32
But josephani ... hows can you imagine the head of a militia and a thug with many medals being the head of thee Parliament? How can you imagine the head of a Militia (that once was a Resistance) taking over the whole Government?
29 March 2014, 15:21
37
Either Ziads will do for me, either Baroud or Rahbani, or even better Demianos Kattar.
29 March 2014, 15:56
31
the four clowns all want to lead the lebanese circus LOL
people of lebanon should revolt against these warlords!
29 March 2014, 16:08
12
Patriarch has planted himself in the middle of the Presidential selection process. He has been tasked by Pope Francis to hold the Christian line in Lebanon for the sake of Christians in the entire region. The good thing about this is that the various warring Christian political leaders all must respect the call of the Patriarch and so you can gather around Bkerki.
The bad thing about this is that it legitimates Hezbollah and clerical activity in political affairs.
29 March 2014, 16:11
12
The Lebanese Christians held the official standard of public conduct in Lebanon. It was a standard that has been long ignored by all parties. Al-Rahi however will not be ignored, so rather than revitalize the old standard, he has abandoned it to take on the Hezbollah paradigm of involvement into political activity.
The Maronite Patriarch has, in the past, been a national symbol of the unity of the Lebanese State. On the national stage, the Patriarch was not just a Christian symbol but a national symbol. By succumbing to his political instincts, al Rahi has shrunk his office to a Lebanese Christian symbol, rather than a Lebanese symbol, but a symbol nonetheless.
29 March 2014, 16:11
31
we are still living a joke of a country as long as all our system is driven by sects.
we will always be hopeless due to such a system.
29 March 2014, 16:13
12
A better solution would have been to bring forward new Christian leadership instead of the collection of dinosaurs who gathered at Bkerki who harbor their ancient feuds, and whose followers harbor the same animosity toward the other due to the personality of the other's leaders. To end the division, retire these dinosaurs and bring forward new leadership from the Christian constituency. This would have been a mission worthy of Patriarch, rather than this.
29 March 2014, 19:04
11
Poor Lebanon
So we are limited to choose our next president between 3 warlords and a delusional..
I'd say all these four OUT and let's get a new clean and honest blood to be president
