BEIRUT, 29 August 2004 — Lebanon’s Cabinet approved a bill yesterday that would allow President Emile Lahoud to seek re-election, pleasing power broker Syria but opposed by a growing number of influential Lebanese and several major foreign powers.
The bill, which would amend the constitution to enable Lahoud to stay on for only three more years, rather than the normal six, must now be submitted to Parliament, which also elects the president from among the Christian community.
The Cabinet approved the bill in a special session that lasted only 20 minutes, Information Minister Michel Samaha said. Twenty-four ministers voted in favor, including Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who had been strongly opposed to his rival Lahoud continuing in office. There were only three votes against.
Hariri had met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and with the powerful head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, Gen. Rostom Ghazali, in the two days leading up to the vote.
Lahoud has said he is willing to stand for another term, and Syria’s overwhelming political influence in Lebanon, where it has thousands of troops, means it can also count on strong support in Parliament.
Samaha said Lahoud told the Cabinet the “regional situation is exceptional and delicate.” He said Lebanon faced a number of dangers, “notably Israeli threats as well as the plan to settle definitively” in Lebanon the Palestinian refugees already living there.
He turned over the chair to Hariri and withdrew from the meeting. Samaha said Hariri then took up Lahoud’s argument, confirming that the “region is going through a dangerous phase, which requires exceptional measures, notably a constitutional amendment to extend for three years” Lahoud’s mandate.
The Cabinet also issued a decree calling for an extraordinary session of Parliament to begin tomorrow to debate the amendment. The election would take place before Lahoud’s term expires at the end of November.
In the past nine years, two constitutional amendments on the presidency have been sought by Syria and voted through Parliament. In 1995, the presidential term of Elias Hrawi was extended for three years.
Three years later, Lahoud was able to stand for president after the rules were changed, because he had not resigned as head of the armed forces soon enough to be eligible. But a growing number of Lebanese religious and political figures are opposed to Lahoud standing for re-election, with Christian and Muslim leaders showing rare unity against Syria’s steam roller tactics.
The United States, France, Germany and Britain have also come out against the move. On Friday, the White House urged Syria not to seek to influence Lebanon’s upcoming presidential election.
“The United States believes strongly that the best interests of both Lebanon and Syria are served by a positive and constructive relationship, based upon principles of mutual respect and non-intervention, between two neighboring sovereign and independent states,” said spokesman Scott McClellan.
On Friday, Britain’s Junior Foreign Minister Bill Rammell said London “believes that constitutional change should be undertaken after careful debate and public consultation.”
“A strong, independent Lebanon whose president is elected in a free and fair electoral process is in the best interest both of its own people and of all the states in the region,” he added. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, meeting Hariri in Beirut on Friday, also called for Lebanon to be “preserved as a sovereign and independent state”. And in Paris, French President Jacques Chirac said Friday that the upcoming presidential election should be held “in line with the current constitution.”
