Following in the footsteps of former Lebanese prime ministers Tammam Salam and Saad Hariri, the current prime minister, Najib Mikati, announced his reluctance to run in the parliamentary elections scheduled for May 15, while Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed the fall of all amendments, postponements or cancellations of the elections.
In a speech from his city of Tripoli (in the north), Mikati announced his reluctance to run “because I believe in the inevitability of change and the necessity of allowing the new generation to speak and define its options,” calling on the Lebanese to “turn out to vote, because the desired real change begins at the ballot box, and not only Expressing opinion through the media, social networking sites and in the squares, stressing that “every electoral paper placed in the box is capable of bringing regarding the desired change.”
As for Berri, who held a press conference in which he announced the names of his candidates, he said that “this entitlement has become a right that is intended to be invalid, and we affirm that we want the elections to take place on time and will take place on this date following all the doors of amendment and postponement have fallen,” stressing that “the voice of the contestants in the elections.” It should not rise above the voice of the majority of the Lebanese who are below the poverty line.”
Likewise, the head of the “Lebanese Forces” party, Samir Geagea, held an electoral meeting with his supporters, in which he made it clear that the upcoming elections are not a political battle but an “existential” one. He said, “It would be better if (Hezbollah) learns from the experience of the Ukrainian resistance and stops pretending to be the resistance in Lebanon in what is closer to an Iranian occupation force or a separatist force.” .
…More
