Aoun Insists on 'Proportional Representation or Electing President by Popular Vote'
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun reiterated Tuesday that the country's political crisis can only be resolved through staging parliamentary polls under a proportional representation law or electing a new president by a “popular vote,” on the eve of a national dialogue meeting called for by Speaker Nabih Berri.
“We want to return authority to the Lebanese people, the source of all authorities. We want to devise a proportional representation law, hold parliamentary elections and then elect a president,” said Aoun after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc in Rabieh.
“But if they want to elect the president first, we support such a move, but that must take place through a popular vote,” he added.
Aoun noted that “all Lebanese want a proportional representation law,” pointing out that “the election of a president by a popular vote frees him of foreign pressures.”
Turning to the dialogue session that will be held on Wednesday, Aoun urged all participants to “engage in talks to build a state, not a farm.”
“The Lebanese people do not trust this government and I'm afraid that they (dialogue parties) might suggest 'changing the people',” Aoun quipped, emphasizing that proportional representation “ensures fairness for all Lebanese, not only Christians.”
As for the garbage crisis, Aoun said the FPM will propose “a complete plan containing new ideas,” noting that “there are certain issues that the municipalities cannot resolve.”
The crisis began in July when the country's main landfill in Naameh closed and pungent garbage started piling up in Beirut and its outskirts sparking angry popular protests.
Berri has noted that the presidential deadlock is the first item on the agenda of the dialogue, and that he would then move to another item if the rival parties failed to agree on it.
The interlocutors are expected to discuss ways to end the vacuum at Baabda Palace, the resumption of the work of parliament and the cabinet, a new electoral draft-law, legislation allowing Lebanese expats to obtain the nationality, administrative decentralization and ways to support the army and the Internal Security Forces.
Y.R.
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