Maronite Patriarch Hands Ban Memo on Presidential Elections

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi handed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon a memo on the ongoing presidential vacuum during the talks they held on Friday, reported An Nahar daily on Saturday.

The memo includes a demand that the international community assume its responsibilities towards Lebanon regarding the presidential deadlock.

It said that the elections “are no longer an internal affair, but they have taken on Arab and regional aspects, which requires the U.N. and Security Council to intervene.”

Bishop Boulos Sayyah told al-Joumhouria newspaper that Ban was the first to bring up the issue of the presidential impasse during his meeting with al-Rahi.

He told the patriarch that the Lebanese people must elect a head of state because the vacuum is leading to instability and the paralysis of state institutions, to which al-Rahi replied that the polls have become linked to external affairs.

“Al-Rahi did not receive a vow from Ban that he will seek to end the deadlock because the U.N. chief insists that this is a Lebanese matter,” Sayyah revealed.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.

Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps have thwarted the polls.