BEIRUT, 24 September 2007 — Top Hezbollah official Mohammed Fneish said yesterday MPs in the Shiite party would not attend tomorrow’s parliamentary session to elect a new president if no agreement was reached beforehand on a candidate.
“Without advance agreement on the name of the new president a quorum will not be assured — and so far there is no accord” with the parliamentary majority, he told AFP.
Fneish was energy minister in the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora before he and five other pro-Syrian ministers resigned last November.
He said that Hezbollah was “in permanent contact” with another opposition stalwart, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, ahead of next week’s planned poll.
“We support Berri’s initiative demanding that the majority respect the constitution on the necessity of a two-thirds quorum required to elect a new president,” Fneish said.
Berri has called a session of Parliament for tomorrow to elect a successor to pro-Syrian incumbent Emile Lahoud, but he has also warned that there will be no vote and the presidential election will be postponed if there is no two-thirds quorum of MPs.
Lebanon’s president, a Maronite Christian by convention, is elected by MPs rather than by popular suffrage. A two-thirds majority is required for a candidate to be elected. In the event of a second round a simple majority suffices.
The opposition, spearheaded by Hezbollah, 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 because the anti-Syrian camp has only a simple majority.
The majority has 68 seats in Parliament as against the opposition’s 58, of whom 14 are Hezbollah members.
MP Antoine Ghanem of the majority was killed on Wednesday by a car bomb in Beirut in an attack blamed by many on Damascus, a charge rejected by Syria.
Berri has been attempting, so far without success, to come up with a consensus candidate. In the event of tomorrow’s election being postponed, MPs still have until the expiry of Lahoud’s mandate on Nov. 24 to elect a successor.
Meanwhile, members of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority demanded increased security yesterday ahead of the presidential vote.
A military source said security would be boosted from today around the Parliament building in Beirut where a special session of the assembly to elect a new president is due to take place.
Leftist parliamentarian Elias Attallah demanded the introduction of security measures to protect the lives of lawmakers for the highly divisive vote.
“Such measures must continue to be applied until a new president is elected,” he told AFP, adding that “it is the duty of members of the majority to attend Tuesday’s session in parliament.” Attallah said concrete security measures must be taken around the perimeter of the Parliament building in central Beirut, on roads leading to it and also for MPs’ vehicles.
