Franjieh: Aoun Still in Our Camp, Presidential Tenure Has Not Achieved Anything

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh announced Thursday that President Michel Aoun is still in the Hizbullah-led March 8 camp while noting that “the new presidential tenure has not achieved anything until the moment.”

“I'm saddened by what's happening in the country,” Franjieh said in an interview with LBCI television, referring to the period that followed Aoun's election.

And in a jab at Aoun, Franjieh said the president's decision to refrain from signing a decree calling on the electoral bodies to organize parliamentary elections “is one of the causes that might lead to vacuum or extension.”

Criticizing the rising Free Patriotic Movement-Lebanese Forces alliance, the Marada chief said “there is a political camp that is using populism.”

“It supported the 1960 (electoral) law between 2005 and 2009 and it represented 70% of Christians back then and we were part of it,” he said.

“President Aoun had several times called for proportional representation in a single electorate in the presence of (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” Franjieh added.

He pointed out that the agreement with the LF has pushed the FPM to “renounce proportional representation and to speak of a hybrid law.”

“But the big surprise was (Prime Minister Saad) Hariri's acceptance of proportional representation,” Franjieh added.

“The qualification system that was proposed by Speaker (Nabih) Berri is not sectarian but rather proportional, and when (Druze leader MP Walid) Jumblat and Hariri agreed to proportional representation, some parties resorted to a (sectarian) qualification system because they were betting that proportional representation would not be accepted,” the Marada chief said.

He accused the FPM-LF alliance of seeking “a one-third veto in parliament” in order to “control the election of the next president.”

“What is happening today is not an electoral law battle but rather a presidential battle and the Christian alliance's problem is not with Muslims but rather with us the other Christians,” Franjieh said.

“It is in our interest as Christians to hold the elections without incitement against the other and no one can eliminate Marada and what it represents,” he added.

Franjieh said that nowadays there are “two ideologies” in the Christian arena: “one that believes that the salvation of Christians lies in isolation and the other believes in openness and accord with the neighborhood.”

Recalling the last municipal polls, Franjieh noted that “the Christian alliance did not win the municipal unions, which reflect 70% of the public opinion.”

He also reminded that “all Christians had agreed to proportional representation in 13 or 15 districts including (Maronite) Patriarch (Beshara) al-Rahi, but they (FPM and LF) later backed down, and I dare them to hold elections under the Orthodox Gathering law.”

Franjieh suggested that the FPM and the LF would only get 35% of Christian seats should the elections be held under the controversial Orthodox Gathering law, which stipulates that each sect would elect its own MPs.

“The bet on a Aoun-Hizbullah dispute is mistaken and General Aoun will not disagree with Sayyed Nasrallah and those betting on this are wasting their time,” he added.

Franjieh also noted that FPM chief Jebran Bassil is “the only person in Lebanon who supports the qualification law,” which prevents voters from voting for candidates from other sects in the first round and which has been slammed as “divisive” and “sectarian.”