Mufti Qabbani Cancels Call for Higher Islamic Council Elections as Miqati Proposes Solution

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani canceled on Thursday his decision to call for the election of members of the Higher Islamic Council on Dec. 30.

Qabbani's new move came to allow Dar al-Fatwa, which is Lebanon’s top Sunni religious authority, to issue a list of eligible voters for the 32-member Council.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati later held talks with Qabbani on Thursday on the matter, revealing that he had offered to the mufti a proposal that would ensure that no vacuum would be created in the Higher Islamic Council.

The suggestion entails holding the elections for the council within two or three months, said the prime minister.

Qabbani had requested some time to study the proposal, he added.

Miqati said that he had consulted with former PM Fouad Saniora on the issue, saying that contacts are ongoing with other former prime ministers as well.

“We hope that they will adopt the centrist option,” stated Miqati.

Last week, the Shura Council suspended the polls after 21 Higher Islamic Council members, who are close to ex-Premier Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement, filed a challenge against Qabbani's call.

They described the elections for the Council that elects the mufti and organizes the affairs of Dar al-Fatwa as illegal over Qabbani's failure to consult them before making his call.

Qabbani's ties with al-Mustaqbal deteriorated last year when he met with a delegation from Hizbullah the same day the Special Tribunal for Lebanon indicted four party members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination.

Relations between the two sides were also shaken when the mufti met with Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali, whom al-Mustaqbal and the March 14 opposition alliance have on several occasions said should be expelled.

Al-Akhbar newspaper said last Saturday that Qabbani would postpone the elections for 45 days during which Dar al-Fatwa would issue the list of voters.

According to the daily, Dar al-Fatwa officials are expecting Prime Minister Najib Miqati to chair a meeting of previous premiers and the Mufti to discuss issues of importance for the Sunni sect and resolve the dispute.