Parliament discusses Aoun's letter as Kataeb, Tajaddod, Change MPs walk out

Parliament convened Thursday to discuss a letter by ex-President Michel Aoun concerning the resignation of the caretaker cabinet.

The session will not be broadcast to the public, and media reports expected it to be fiery.

Al-Kataeb, the Change MPs and MPs Ashraf Rifi and Michel Mouawad considered the session to be unconstitutional and walked out after voicing their opinion at the beginning of the session.

MP Melhem Khalaf said that the constitution clearly states that parliament must convene to elect a new president and that the election sessions must be the parliament's top priority.

The MPs considered that until the election of a new president, no other matters are supposed to be discussed.

Aoun in his letter said that caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati was "uninterested" in forming a new cabinet to deal with Lebanon's myriad problems and called on him to resign.

Before leaving his post, he signed a decree "accepting the resignation" of the caretaker cabinet.

"The session is unconstitutional regardless of the content of the letter," Khalaf said, while MP Ashraf Rifi considered the content to be sectarian and "venomous." "Aoun is no longer our President, so what is the point of discussing this letter," he said.

While it's not the first time that Lebanon's parliament has failed to appoint a successor by the end of the president's term, this will be the first time that there will be both no president and a caretaker cabinet with limited powers.

Although the constitution "doesn't say explicitly that the caretaker government can act if there is no president, logically, constitutionally, one should accept that because the state and institutions should continue to function according to the principle of the continuity of public services," constitutional expert Wissam Lahham said.

Many MPs who attended the session also considered that electing a new president should be the Parliament's priority, except of course for the Free Patriotic Movement MPs after their chief Jebran Bassil blamed Berri for not considering the letter more urgent and for taking too long to discuss it. He said Berri should have called for parliament to convene last Monday, instead of today, Thursday.

"Parliament must only convene to elect a new president," al-Kataef chief MP Sami Gemayel said.

While Hezbollah and Amal MPs blame the opposition MPs for naming a "confrontational" candidate and accuse them of obstructing the election of a president who can actually secure the needed votes, the opposition MPs blame Hezbollah, Amal and the FPM for obstructing the vote by casting blank ballots and leaving the session before the second round which leads to a lack of quorum.

"Those who are boycotting the election sessions are responsible of the vacuum," said MP and presidential candidate Michel Mouawad before the session.