Phalange Party Rejects Postponing Elections under Any Excuse
The Phalange party rejected on Monday postponing the upcoming parliamentary elections, calling upon all parties to separate this issue from their political stances towards the cabinet and from boycotting its work.
"We warn against any attempt to postpone the elections,” said the statement released after the weekly meeting of the party's political bureau, adding that elections are “a strictly constitutional matter that should not be manipulated under any excuse”.
“Challenging the cabinet's work and pushing it to resign could be achieved through other means,” the statement explained.
The March 14 coalition had announced upon the assassination of General Wissam al-Hasan that it would be boycotting all cabinet's work and parliamentary sessions, calling on PM Najib Miqati to resign.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said on Friday that “it is possible to extend the term of the current parliament for an additional 6 months until an accord on the electoral law is reached or the 1960 law is amended”.
The political bureau also discussed the current regional events, warning against dragging Lebanon into Syria and Israel's conflicts.
"Setting up rockets to be launched from Lebanon and having a drone flying in Israeli airspace are all infringements of Lebanon's sovereignty,” said the party, adding that these events challenge the state, and the role of the army and the UNIFIL in the South.
The army said it dismantled on Thursday a rocket in southern Lebanon after two similar rockets were fired towards Israel the day before but fell in Lebanese territories.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that the drone shot down by Israeli air force on October 6 after it had entered the country's airspace was launched by his party.
The party congratulated Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi on his appointment as a Cardinal, expressing that this “generation is blessed to have lived during the reign of two Lebanese cardinals”.
Al-Rahi joined on Saturday the elite club of churchmen who will elect the next pope in a ceremony held by Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter's Basilica.
Around 500 officials and politicians led by President Michel Suleiman were among 1,500 Lebanese attending Saturday's ceremony.
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