BEIRUT, 23 September 2007 — Lebanon’s parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri said in remarks quoted yesterday that next week’s presidential election would be postponed if MPs did not turn up in sufficient numbers.
Berri, a member of the pro-Syrian opposition, told the most senior MP, Ghassan Tueni, that he personally would attend Tuesday’s session in Parliament, but added: “If a quorum is not reached, we will postpone it” (the vote).
Berri, who was quoted in An-Nahar newspaper, has been pushing for the two sides to find a consensus candidate to replace the outgoing, pro-Syrian, President Emile Lahoud whose term expires on Nov. 24.
Both domestically and internationally, supporters of the anti-Syrian majority have demanded that MPs proceed to elect a new president, with pressure to do so boosted following the latest killing of an MP opposed to Damascus.
Under the constitution, MPs elect the president — traditionally a Maronite Christian — by a majority of two-thirds of Parliament’s 128 seats in a first round or a simple majority afterward if a second round is required.
The pro-Syrian opposition interprets the rule as saying a quorum of two-thirds of MPs is needed, enabling it to prevent the election of a candidate it rejects, as the anti-Syrian camp has only a simple majority.
Hezbollah has several times threatened to torpedo a quorum, pulling out MPs in its camp from the vote.
Tuesday’s election comes just days after the bomb attack which killed MP Antoine Ghanem, the eighth anti-Syrian politician to be assassinated since the February 2005 murder of five times prime minister and billionaire tycoon Rafik Hariri.
Pro-government MPs in Beirut have pointed the finger of blame at Syria, which denied any involvement and called the bombing a “criminal act” aimed at undermining efforts at a rapprochement with Lebanon. Leaders from across the political spectrum have vowed to press ahead with the controversial presidential vote despite Ghanem’s killing.
His death reduced the government’s support in parliament to 68 out of the remaining 127 MPs, with numbers set to play a key role in the vote.
Syria’s Information Minister Mohsen Bilal, in a statement published yesterday, said: “Accusations made against Syria by the forces of March 14 (the ruling coalition), which are linked to a foreign plan, are allegations without foundation and lacking proof.”
