President Michel Suleiman on Sunday wondered whether the president of the republic was “supposed to practice his powers by signing a decree, without having the right to appoint a head for the Higher Judicial Council,” in reference to calls asking him to sign a decree approving the $5.9 billion spending bill proposed by government should the parliament fail to adopt it.

Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in Australia on an official visit, the president said he was still studying all the aspects of the issue, noting that he has not taken a “final stance, although the door is still open for parliament to resolve this issue.”

Ex-Premier Saad Hariri slammed efforts to adopt a parliamentary elections law based on proportionality, saying the threat of Hizbullah’s arms closes the door to democratic competition.

In an interview published in al-Mustaqbal daily on Sunday, Hariri said: “Proportionality is a means for people or political movements that do not enjoy absolute majority in a certain region to be represented in parliament based on their proportional size.”

President Michel Suleiman stated on Saturday that the legislative authority has the responsibility to follow up on the people’s daily lives, as well as the manage government affairs.

He therefore stressed the need to hold a parliament session “as soon as possible” in order to tackle the $5.9 billion spending bill of the 2011 government.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel hoped that the parliamentary electoral law will be approved ahead of the 2013 elections, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Saturday.

He told the newspaper that he hopes that the electoral law will be approved six months ahead of the polls because logistic preparations for the elections need that much time.

President Michel Suleiman traveled to Australia on Saturday on the first visit of its kind for a Lebanese president, reported As Safire newspaper on Saturday.

Sources told the newspaper that memorandums of understandings will be signed with the Australian government and Suleiman will also meet with prominent businessmen of Lebanese origin.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Friday the importance of the stability Lebanon is experiencing in light of the tense political and security situation in the region.

He urged the Lebanese people, on the 37th anniversary of the eruption of the Lebanese civil war, “to derive lessons from conflicts that disregarded national interests and instead served personal and regional gains.”

A centrist ministerial source shrugged off warnings that state employees would not receive their salaries by the end of the month, saying the president should not be pressured into signing a decree on the $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending of 2011.

Suleiman should be given the freedom whether to resort to article 58 of the constitution which allows the president to issue a bill deemed urgent by the government after the failure of the legislature to approve it within forty days following its transfer to the chamber of deputies and its inclusion on the agenda of the discussions.

Opposition MP Marwan Hamadeh accused the March 8 forces of seeking to circumvent the parliament by pressuring President Michel Suleiman into signing a bill on the $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending of 2011.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published Friday, Hamadeh, who is part of the March 14 coalition, said: “Pressuring the president into signing an urgent bill for the first time since the (adoption of) the Taef (accord) circumvents the parliament which has been initially established to approve financial draft-laws.”

President Michel Suleiman is likely to throw the extra-budgetary spending ball in parliament’s court over fears that his approval of a $5.9 billion bill would have severe consequences.

Suleiman’s sources told As Safir daily published on Friday that the president’s legal experts are studying the amendments that the parliamentary finance and budget committee introduced to the bill referred to it by the cabinet.

President Michel Suleiman is mulling to issue a decree on a $5.9 billion extra-budgetary 2011 spending over fears that public sector employees would fail to receive their salaries and state projects would stop by the end of May.

Suleiman discussed the issue with the head of the parliamentary finance and budget committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, at Baabda palace on Wednesday.