Mustaqbal: Hizbullah Pushing Country to Danger, Trying to Impose Presidential Candidate
Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc accused Hizbullah on Tuesday of seeking to “impose its presidential candidate as a sole nominee,” blaming it for the ongoing presidential vacuum.
Criticizing remarks by Hizbullah politburo chief Sayyed Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed, the bloc said his statements “clearly show who is obstructing the election of a new president.”
Dialogue over the presidential crisis “must occur in the right place … and the serious way to discuss the electoral issue should be through dialogue with MP Michel Aoun,” al-Sayyed said following a visit to the headquarters of the the Tashnag party on Monday.
Mustaqbal warned that his remarks “maintain the presidential vacuum in the country and consequently expose the Lebanese state to reckless bets and all kinds of dangers.”
It accused Hizbullah of “taking the country hostage” with the aim of “securing the election of a certain candidate, without respecting the democratic mechanism for the election of presidents.”
The bloc also held the party responsible for “pushing the country to a higher level of danger, after it subjected Lebanon to enormous threats through its unilateral decision to take part in a regional axis and in the fighting in Syria alongside a tyrant regime.”
“Hizbullah has chosen its candidate for the president and this is its right, but it is now trying to impose him as a sole nominee on which all Lebanese must agree,” Mustaqbal lamented, urging the party to “leave the freedom of choice to the Lebanese people and its lawmakers.”
Turning to the issue of the controversy over the mechanism of cabinet's work in the absence of a president, Mustaqbal called for “abiding by the stipulations of the Lebanese Constitution in a strict manner, without inventing precedents or norms that violate the Constitution.”
Lebanon has been without a president since May when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor. The vacuum has created a debate on whether to change the mechanism at cabinet.
The differences between the ministers on the amendment of the mechanism prompted Prime Minister Tammam Salam to suspend sessions in the past two weeks giving way for the cabinet members to reach an agreement on the formula, which he wants it to be based on Article 65 of the Constitution.
The current mechanism, which was adopted after the cabinet assumed the prerogative of the president in accordance with the constitution, states that ministers should give unanimous support to the government's decisions.
But it proved to be troublesome after some ministers resorted to veto power.
Earlier on Tuesday, Salam called on cabinet to convene on Thursday.
Y.R.
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