Kataeb Slams Presidential Vote Obstruction as 'Kidnap for Ransom'
The Kataeb Party on Monday slammed “the behavior of some parties towards the presidential crisis” as “unprecedented blackmail” and “kidnap for ransom.”
“It is an unprecedented blackmail and an attempt to usurp the political system and kidnap the republic for a ransom,” said the party in a statement issued after the weekly meeting of its political bureau.
“The stances that were voiced in the past hours confirm anew the presence of a dictatorship that is appropriating MPs' freedom, burying democracy, suspending the Constitution and establishing a customary system for Lebanon,” Kataeb added.
And slamming the parties who are trying to “impose a president” on the country under the threat of plunging the country into “total chaos,” the party warned that “this is the worst scenario for the most dangerous existential crisis that Lebanon has gone through.”
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties, including Kataeb, as well as Hizbullah.
Hariri's move prompted Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between the two parties.
The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://cdn.naharnet.com/stories/en/216697 |