Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star: Election session quorum secure, Jumblatt bloc to back Aoun

Election session quorum secure, Jumblatt bloc to back Aoun
Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/October 27/16

 BEIRUT: A quorum of a two-thirds majority – 86 MPs – has been secured to convene a Parliament session for electing a new president, Speaker Nabih Berri said Wednesday, adding that a second round of voting would be held if a candidate did not win in the first round.
In the meantime, MP Walid Jumblatt’s 11-member parliamentary bloc appears to be heading toward backing MP Michel Aoun’s nomination for the presidency, dropping its declared support for his rival, Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh.
With backing from Jumblatt’s bloc, Aoun has been assured of a big parliamentary majority for his election as president at the Parliament session scheduled for next Monday, after having gained the support of the Future Movement, the Lebanese Forces, Hezbollah and some of its March 8 allies.
“The quorum for the session to elect a president is known and secured. We will have a [Parliament] session with two rounds [of voting] if a candidate does not win in the first round. There is no need for excitement and confusion,” Berri told Lebanese reporters in Geneva, where he is attending meetings of an international union of parliaments.
A candidate needs a two-thirds majority, or 86 MPs, to be elected president in the first round of voting. But in the second round, an absolute majority, or 65 MPs, is sufficient to declare a candidate a winner.
Berri, who has declared that he will not vote for Aoun, said he would attend the Parliament session along with his 13-member parliamentary bloc. He reiterated that the main challenge facing Lebanon following the election of a president was an agreement between the rival factions on a new voting system to replace the contested 1960 electoral law.
“The ‘greater jihad’ following the election of a president and the main element in it is a new electoral law,” Berri said.
In a statement issued by his media office Wednesday, Berri called for a Parliament session to be held at 12 noon next Monday to elect a president. This session will be the 46th since the six-year term of former President Michel Sleiman ended in May 2014, and Parliament has since been unable to convene due to a lack of quorum to pick a successor.
Frangieh, a key figure in the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition, reiterated that he would not pull out of the presidential race despite former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s support for Aoun.
Speaking to reporters after a 45-minute meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai at the latter’s summer residence in Diman in the north, Frangieh said: “The atmosphere is excellent and the meeting with the patriarch is normal ahead of the next election session.”Frangieh’s visit to Rai raised speculation that the Maronite patriarch might ask the presidential aspirant to withdraw from the race in favor of Aoun. But Frangieh dismissed this speculation, saying that Rai did not ask him to quit the presidential race. “I will go on with my candidacy,” he said.
Frangieh was nominated last year by Hariri for the presidency as part of an internationally backed initiative to end the power vacuum, now in its third year.
Another presidential candidate, MP Henry Helou, said he would not withdraw from the race as long as his nomination served Lebanon’s best interest. “I pledge to safeguard freedom and democracy … and confront corruption with all the available means,” Helou said in a statement. Helou was nominated by Jumblatt’s parliamentary Democratic Gathering bloc in April 2014 for the presidency.
However, a member of Jumblatt’s bloc said Helou would withdraw from the race and the bloc would support Aoun’s presidential bid.
“MP Henry Helou will announce the withdrawal of his nomination for the presidency before next Monday because the general tendency is for Jumblatt to endorse Gen. Aoun’s candidacy,” MP Antoine Saad told Al-Fajer radio station. “The final and unified stance will be taken after the bloc’s final meeting.”
Saad said that Jumblatt, the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, would make an announcement on the bloc’s final stand on the presidential election following Aoun’s expected visit to Jumblatt at the latter’s residence in Mukhtara.
He added that all signs indicated Aoun would be elected as president either in the first or second round of voting Monday.
For his part, LF chief Samir Geagea applauded the country’s ability to overcome efforts to further delay the election of a new head of state, expressing hope that the next presidency would be a uniquely Lebanese decision free of foreign interference.
He also predicted the formation of a new government by Hariri within a few weeks following the election of Aoun as president.
“We are living historic times. We will not have a president made in Lebanon 99.99 percent, but one that is made in Lebanon 200 percent,” Geagea said during a conference on boosting transparency in Lebanon’s oil and gas sectors held at his residence in Maarab, north of Lebanon.
“Today at this moment, I consider we have cleared our conscience, and we will do something big for the people,” he said.
The conference was attended by Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian, Education Minister Elias Bou Saab and a number of lawmakers.
“I think that following the presidential election, the new regime will not be the same as previous regimes. [Former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri will be named prime minister and a new government will be formed within a few weeks,” Geagea said.
He noted that many of the country’s stagnant sectors were gradually rebounding ahead of the presidential election session.
Commenting on the country’s offshore oil and gas reserves, Geagea warned that rampant corruption could hinder efforts to revitalize the country’s ailing economy.
“Corruption is chipping at the Lebanese state from the diesel to the electricity to the trash and internet … We have grave concerns in this respect,” he said.
Geagea added that according to preliminary findings, oil and gas reserves would generate around $60 to 70 billion for the Lebanese Treasury even after the country’s debt is paid.
Seismic studies over the last few years have shown that Lebanon has trillions of cubic feet of oil and natural gas in its sea floor, a discovery which boosted international confidence in Lebanon’s economic future.