With the continuing vacuum in the Lebanese presidential chair, a group of Lebanese deputies announced, last Thursday, an open sit-in inside the corridors of the “Parliament of Representatives” and not leaving until a new president of the Lebanese Republic is elected to succeed the former president, Michel Aoun, whose term ended last October. .
The Lebanese “Parliament” had held, on Thursday, its eleventh session to elect a president of the republic, without agreeing on a name that would have the necessary majority of the votes of the representatives, in a clear scene of the loss of all parties and political alliances in the country to the majority in the new “House of Representatives”, which He was elected in May 2022, which makes it imperative to agree on a name that is acceptable to transient political divisions or to conclude political settlements similar to what happened in 2016 when Michel Aoun was elected.
The sit-in process, which began Thursday in Parliament, is considered a new precedent in Lebanese political life, as it prompts questions about the reasons for the continued failure of the president’s election, the impact of the sit-in, and whether there is a horizon for resolving this crisis.
A new precedent, but informative?
Thursday’s session was distinguished from its predecessors by a unique declaration that had not been recorded in the history of Lebanese political life before. It came from the side of MPs Melhem Khalaf and Najat Saliba, who are affiliated with the “Forces of Change” bloc of representatives, which emerged from the popular protests that the country witnessed between 2019. and 2020, and succeeded in obtaining a parliamentary bloc of 11 deputies, as the two deputies announced their intention to remain in the hall of the General Assembly of the Lebanese “Parliament of Representatives”, and to sit-in peacefully to pressure towards electing a president for the republic.
The move received support from a number of opposition deputies, including the Lebanese Kataeb Party, whose head, Representative Sami Gemayel, said, “We are studying the move and we may join it at any time.” Contacts began with other deputies and blocs with the aim of expanding the circle of participation, and the deputies decided to remain in the hall. the Council With the electricity turned off in the afternoon, a number of deputies were keen to stay with them to support them and secure what they needed.
Among the deputies who supported the sit-in is MP Waddah al-Sadiq, who said in press statements, “There is great support for the sit-in decision in Parliament, and what we are asking for is nothing but the implementation of the constitution, which stipulates keeping the election sessions open,” adding, “The tense political situation in Lebanon He needed a different initiative, and what we are working on today is to communicate with the blocs to secure the broadest participation.
The Lebanese journalist on the “Independent in Arabic” website, Sawsan Muhanna, sees during her interview with “Al-Hal Net” that for the parliament sit-in it is a good step, but its echo will be in the media. As for changes on the ground, nothing will happen because the president of the “parliament” Nabih Berri owns most of the keys to a solution, and he announced the adjournment of the election session and leaving things as they are now. This brings to mind the period of the sit-ins in Beirut in 2007 and 2008, when he used to say, “The matter is in my hands.”
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Muhanna adds that the sit-in expresses the point of view of a number of deputies, but it is important to know how many deputies will join this sit-in, and this is not clear so far, and it is not expected that a large number will join, and the sit-in deputies are being harassed in various ways, including cutting off electricity. .
Reasons for the failure of the election of the President
Since the end of the term of the former President, Michel Aoun, at the end of last October, Parliament failed Thursday for the eleventh time to elect a successor due to deep political divisions, especially since any political party does not have a parliamentary majority that would allow it to deliver a candidate.
Conflicts between political currents, especially the two main blocs in parliament, and the absence of other blocs in the electoral sessions, or the withdrawal of some blocs from the sessions, and the absence of a bloc with a majority caused a presidential vacuum with which the crisis in Lebanon deepened.
In this context, Muhanna explains that some blocs decided to boycott the sessions, as Walid Jumblatt indicated that his bloc will boycott the parliament sessions, which he called “folkloric” or shuttle sessions, due to the lack of a sufficient quorum for the election, and the absence of representatives from other blocs.
Also, according to Muhanna, there is no bloc in the “House of Representatives” capable of controlling so far, whether “March 8” or “March 14”, because there are “two” deputies who came in the recent parliamentary elections and caused a violation of the known equations. That is why the two main groups are trying to attract The “change-making” representatives, but so far there has been no name proposed for the presidency, although “Hezbollah” wants to put forward the name of Suleiman Franjieh, and it is the party that is trying, through the current obstruction, to choose the Lebanese either to agree on Franjieh, or things will remain as they are now.
Also, among the reasons for the failure to elect or choose a new president for the republic, Muhanna points out that there are no international and regional changes capable of causing a push to end this crisis. The international community is preoccupied with several files, most notably the Iranian nuclear file, and the Russian war in Ukraine, and these matters are reflected in Lebanon.
Is there a horizon to solve the crisis in Lebanon?
It is clear that the continuation of the political crisis in Lebanon increases the deterioration of the political and economic situation. In conjunction with the failure of Parliament on Thursday, the lira recorded a record deterioration, as the exchange rate exceeded the threshold of fifty thousand against one US dollar, in an indication of the depth of the political and economic crises that do not loom. Solutions for them are on the horizon.
Also, the meetings that are taking place between Jumblatt and “Hezbollah” and other parties do not seem so far to be fruitful, especially with the implicit insistence of “Hezbollah” on the nomination and selection of the representative in Parliament, Suleiman Franjieh.
Muhanna believes that as long as there is no international or regional settlement to choose a president for Lebanon as desired by the international community and a large segment of the Lebanese, a reformist president capable of pulling Lebanon out of the ordeal experienced by any sovereign president who does not follow external forces, things will not be stable in Lebanon.
But if things happen otherwise, according to Muhanna, the situation will remain as it is, and there will be no solutions on the horizon. The situation is very difficult, and the Lebanese currency is in a continuous collapse, reaching 50,000 pounds against the dollar, in addition to a collapse at all levels and sagging in state institutions. Therefore, until now, there is no such thing as electing a president, and the meetings that take place between political blocs and politicians are nothing but futile and wasteful meetings.
So far, it does not seem that the Lebanese political blocs in the Lebanese parliament are able to agree on choosing a candidate acceptable to all to fill the vacant presidential position. Each bloc has its own narrow internal and external agendas linked to other countries, especially “Hezbollah”, which is considered with the “Amal Movement” headed by the Speaker of Parliament. Nabih Berri Akbar is blocking this choice.
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