March 14 MPs Gather at Parliament against Vacuum: Lawmakers' Main Task Remains Electing New President

More than 40 MPs of the March 14 alliance gathered at the parliament on Saturday evening to protest the presidential vacuum, hours after President Michel Suleiman left the Baabda Palace without a successor to take office in the coming 6 years.

MTV revealed that 48 lawmakers gathered in the presence of Speaker Nabih Berri, who announced his readiness to hold an electoral parliamentary session if quorum was met.

However, the required number of MPs to hold an electoral session was not secured.

"We call on MPs to commit to their representative role by showing up at the parliament,” a statement read by Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan said.

“The parliament's main task remains electing a new president,” it stressed.

The statement elaborated on the coalition's stance: “Since the beginning, the March 14 forces have dealt with the presidential elections as a main turning point, in order to accentuate that the Republic is established on the bases of the National Pact, the Constitution and parliamentary democracy.”

“But the other camp wanted this juncture to be an occasion to overthrow the parliament and democracy. It annulled the role of the parliament whose members represent the nation,” it continued.

“What they have done consecrated vacuum by preventing quorum from meeting, and this is what drove President Suleiman to say their practices are against their representative role.”

The March 14 alliance's lawmakers also vowed to remain committed to safeguarding the Taef Accord, equal power sharing, and to implementing all articles of the Baabda Declaration.

“We will not become submissive to any pressure and blackmailing, and we will prevent any opportunity which could threaten security, the economy and the Constitution,” Adwan assured.

Speaker Berri met with several March 14 MPs upon their arrival at the parliament, including al-Mustaqbal bloc head Fouad Saniora, Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb, Adwan, the Kataeb Party's Sami Gemayel and Samer Saade, al-Mustaqbal's Ghazi Youssef and Jamal al-Jarrah, and MP Marwan Hamadeh, the state-run National News Agency reported.

"Being present here today is a political duty,” stated Harb, urging his fellow lawmakers to “practice their responsibilities and national task."

"We want to avoid presidential vacuum and the country needs a president. There are democratic rules and constitutional work should not be obstructed," Harb added.

Meanwhile, al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Mohammed Qabbani told al-Jadeed television: “Our symbolic presence at the parliament today is to stress our right of electing a new president and to say that it is not us who consecrated vacuum."

Qabbani also called for consensus between Christian blocs over the presidential deadlock.

An Nahar newspaper reported earlier on Saturday that the March 14 lawmakers will rally at the parliament to express their determination to carry out the presidential poll within the constitutional deadline.

The daily reported that Gemayel proposed on the coalition's lawmakers to hold a rally at the parliament from 6:00 pm until midnight.

The camp also sought to convince the Democratic Gathering bloc, which is loyal to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat, to participate in their endeavor.

“This symbolic move aims to express our sadness over the failure to elect a new president to begin his term on Sunday,” a prominent March 14 figure told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, al-Liwaa daily said that the March 14 alliance will stage daily rallies for the same purpose near the parliament.

The parliament failed anew on Thursday to elect a president in a fifth session of its kind, raising 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.

S.D.B./H.K.

D.A.