Change and Reform Proposes Constitutional Amendment on Direct Elections
Change and Reform bloc lawmakers proposed on Thursday a draft-law for a constitutional amendment to have direct presidential elections in Lebanon.
Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) said MP Ibrahim Kanaan, who proposed the draft-law on behalf of the bloc's members, is scheduled to hold a press conference on Friday to inform the public opinion about it.
Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun, who heads the parliamentary bloc, made an initiative in June to resolve the presidential deadlock.
He called for the “limited constitutional amendment” that would allow the people to elect their head of state in two rounds to avoid the same scenarios that parliamentary sessions are witnessing.
Parliament has failed in several rounds to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman, whose six-year term expired in May after the March 8 and 14 alliances failed to agree on a compromise candidate.
The majority of the March 8 camp's MPs, including the lawmakers of Aoun's Change and Reform bloc, have boycotted the sessions, leading to a lack of the needed two-thirds quorum.
Aoun said that his proposal lies in allowing only Christians to vote for their candidates in the first round.
The system then allows the polls to be held at the level of the entire nation to pave way for both Muslims and Christians to choose the two candidates who received the majority of votes in the first round.
The FPM chief has refused to announce his candidacy, claiming there should be consensus on him first. But the March 14 alliance, has backed his rival Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, who was the first to make the presidential bid.
G.K.
M.T.
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