Suleiman on USJ Incident: Simplest Rules of Democracy Oblige Everyone to Accept Vote Results
President Michel Suleiman on Monday stressed that “the simplest rules of democracy oblige everyone to acknowledge and accept the results” of elections, following a standoff between rival students at Universite Saint Joseph in Beirut.
Suleiman held phone talks with caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, Army chief General Jean Qahwaji, USJ president Father Salim Daccache and security officials to inquire about the incident, the National News Agency reported.
The president said the democratic spirit must prevail “instead of denial, defiance, questioning the winner's victory and provoking the defeated.”
He called on students to “practice democracy and engage in democratic electoral competition which are aimed at improving their situations,” underlining that “elections at universities must remain an example for what democracy should be like in our country.”
Earlier on Monday, tensions surged at the USJ-Huvelin campus in Beirut as Hizbullah supporters protested against recent student elections results, according to MTV.
It said that the supporters surrounded the campus in protest, sparking tensions between them and the March 14 students. The army soon intervened however averting any clash between the rival camps.
The student elections were held at USJ last week.
An alliance between the Lebanese Forces and March 14 forces won the majority of seats at three of the campus' four faculties, while independent students swept the last faculty.
Phalange bloc MP Sami Gemayel later revealed during a press conference that the standoff began when Hizbullah supporters at the campus painted graffiti hailing Habib al-Shartouni, who was convicted of the assassination of former President Bashir Gemayel in 1982.
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