Suleiman's Message to Parliament to Rebuke MPs for Failing to Elect New President

The March 14 alliance considered on Sunday that outgoing President Michel Suleiman scolded lawmakers in his message to the parliament for failing to carry out their constitutional duties.

Sources close to the March 14 coalition told the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper that Suleiman in his messages was seeking to rebuke the parliament for failing to elect a new head of state as his tenure end next week.

Suleiman had continue sly reiterated that he will be at his home on May 25, as his term ends on May 24 when he is scheduled to deliver a farewell speech.

There are fears that the vacuum in the country's top Christian post would affect Lebanon's power-sharing agreement under which the president should be a Maronite, the premier a Sunni and the speaker a Shiite.

On Friday, Suleiman urged the parliament to act in accordance with the Constitution to avert the dangers that could arise from the failure to elect a new head of state by May 25.

The president's message has only a moral value and doesn't oblige the speaker or lawmakers with anything but to be read at the parliament in accordance with the authorities given to the head of state by clause 10 of article 53 of the Constitution.

Parliament has so far failed to elect a new president over differences between the March 8 and 14 alliances.

Most of the March 8 camp's MPs have boycotted four rounds of elections over their call for an agreement on a consensual president and their rejection of the candidacy of their foe Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

A fifth round of polls is scheduled to be held next Thursday, two days before the expiry of Suleiman's six-year tenure.

The message is the third of-its-kind handed over to the parliament since the adoption of the Taif accord.

Lebanon's First Post-War President Elias Hrawi had urged the parliament in his message to approve civil marriage in the country and to establish the “National Authority for the abolition of political sectarianism,” and former President Emile Lahoud dispatched a message regarding the electoral law.

H.K.