Al-Rahi Says Electing President to End Local Crises, Criticizes Possible Vacuum

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Sunday the need to elect a new president, considering it a window of opportunity to end all crises in the country.

“Lawmakers should carry out their national task and elect a new head of state,” al-Rahi said during his sermon.

The Patriarch reject vacuum at any cost “even for one day as it violates the national pact and the constitution.”

“Those who are seeking vacuum will be held responsible for its consequences.”

Parliament has so far failed to elect a new president over differences between the March 8 and 14 alliances.

Most of the March 8 camp's MPs have boycotted four rounds of elections over their call for an agreement on a consensual president and their rejection of the candidacy of their foe Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

A fifth round of polls is scheduled to be held next Thursday, two days before the expiry of Suleiman's six-year tenure.

Al-Rahi lashed out at reports saying that the premiership could replace the vacuum at the presidential post.

“No one could replace the president,” he said, adding that all “personal and factional accounts are rejected.”

There are fears that the vacuum in the country's top Christian post would affect Lebanon's power-sharing agreement under which the president should be a Maronite, the premier a Sunni and the speaker a Shiite.

Outgoing President Michel Suleiman had continuously reiterated that he will be at his home on May 25, as his term ends on May 24 when he is scheduled to deliver a farewell speech.

H.K.