Salam Wants Neutral President to Avoid Victor-Vanquished Scenario
Prime Minister Tammam Salam reiterated that Lebanese lawmakers should elect a neutral president to avoid a power grab by either the March 8 or 14 alliances.
Salam told BBC television in Arabic on Wednesday that there are several candidates who have popular representation, parliamentary blocs and parties.
They are Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, the head of the Marada Movement, lawmaker Suleiman Franjieh, and former Kataeb Party chief ex-President Amin Gemayel, he said.
Two of them are members of the March 8 alliance and the other two are from the March 14 coalition.
“If any one of them wins the presidential elections, then a certain camp would emerge victorious and the other would be defeated,” he said.
But Salam warned that such a scenario would cause further tension in the country.
There are six or seven other respectable personalities who are being named for the presidency.
“Let's head towards that direction and avoid a victor and vanquished scenario,” he told BBC.
Salam called for electing “a neutral and centrist personality who is able at this difficult stage to fill the post and return things to normal.”
The country's top Christian post at Baabda Palace was left vacant after President Michel Suleiman's six-year tenure ended in May last year over sharp differences between March 8 and 14.
The last electoral round was set to take place on Wednesday but Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned it to August 12 over the continued boycott of several parliamentary blocs.
16 July 2015, 12:04
40
The patriotic lebanese that are fighting Israel and the tafkiris will never accept anybody for President if it is not general Aoun. This general has proven he is part of our revolution and will implement its principles and teachings in Lebanon.
16 July 2015, 14:59
21
Parviz, so according to you a patriotic Lebanese is one who goes to fight in Syria for the regime? Or to Yemen? Or one that provokes Israel into a devastating response then declares victory on the corpses and ashes of our ruins? A Patriotic Lebanese according to you is one who keeps this country in perpetual misery no matter what? Your statement on Aoun alone goes further to prove that people like you haver nothing in the form of patriotism and even less in the spirit of democracy, if your ideal is a rubber stamper stooge like Aoun then obviously you want to make of Lebanon a Rat Republic. But you can go to bed in the thought that so long as decent Lebanese still live in this country, rats like your Aoun will be confined to gutters and our sewage will be the best form of nutrition for them. This president will come, whether you like it or not. Now take that ridiculous flag of yours off.
16 July 2015, 12:05
22
I agree anyone but Aoun as he will place the finail nail in Lebanon's coffin
16 July 2015, 13:01
22
Ebola followers will continue supporting the mareedman because he is their servant...
Why don't you ask the Christians in Lebanon and abroad?
16 July 2015, 14:23
22
Salam is aligned to the future movement. Why was his prime ministership not a victor vanquished scenario? Why does this apply only to Christians? If March 14 Christians had any dignity they would rip Salams statement to bits. Such sectarian crap. As an FpMer I have decided that after Aoun my second choice is Geagea in order to at least guarantee a Christian choice.
16 July 2015, 15:30
12
There are no neutral strong candidates. Nobody should dictate to the Christians who are the indiginous population, as to what type of president they prefer. Let the chips fall where they may for a change.
16 July 2015, 15:39
21
(1). Rami, your post cannot be more preposterous, as usual as as do most M8ers, your keenness to brand people so unfairly cannot be any louder in the dispensation of rash opinion. Salam for your information is a neutral person and you should feel lucky that this man's phenomenal patience and intelligence are not short fused like the case of your so-called General in Rabieh. Salam's words will outlive time immemorial, especially his patriotic stance of hedging the nation closer to electing a neutral president.
16 July 2015, 15:40
21
(2) Rami. In neutral the aim is impartial, a president for all the Lebanese and not just a percentage of it. Here I am, an LFer to the bone marrow, yet I would never want Geagea as president of Lebanon because neither he nor Aoun could be neutral in any form. In Lebanon we have great people, still young, highly educated, visionary, patriotic, cleanliness of unimpeachable qualities and you want for us a demagogue like Aoun, one who is now past 80 and with nothing but failures to offer the nation? If I were you, I would look around me properly and will come to terms that there are countless brilliant youthful people who would cut the cheese a lot cleaner.
16 July 2015, 15:42
22
There goes Trick, the Portuguese drummer using Iranian hide and Lebanese timber to sing that lame same old stale tune.
16 July 2015, 17:10
21
Best to select a president from the expatriate Lebanese community. One with ties to the world and who is not tainted by the corrupted patronage politics of the existing resident political class.
