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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Majority hands the Parliament petition on proposed amendment |
| 2007-12-28 |
| A delegation of Lebanon’s majority MPs which included Akram Chehayyeb, Antoine Zahra and Ammar Houri handed the petition on the proposed amendment to the Secretary-General of the Council of Deputies Adnan Dahir at 2 PM local time . Chehayyeb said : "On behalf of the majority we have presented the petition on the amendment of article 49 of the Lebanese constitution to allow the election of the Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as President of the Republic signed by more than 10 MPs . This is an additional proof of the sincere desire of the parliamentary majority of March 14 to save the presidential elections by the election of Gen. Michel Suleiman as the compromise president for all of Lebanon, specially since the country is going through a lot of turmoil." MP Antoine Zahra said : “I apologize for the absence of MP Walid Eido and MP Antoine Ghanem , two of the colleagues that Akram and I are used to accompany . He added those 2 MPS that were killed by 'wild pigs' will be back one day when Lebanon becomes a truly independent and democratic and free country.” Eido and Ghanem who were outspoken anti Syrian MPs were assassinated in 2007. Syria ( and not the wild pigs ) was accused of the assassination but it denied any wrongdoing . The MPs who signed the petition are Eli Aoun, Antoine Zahra, Imad Houri, Mustafa Hashim, Mohammad Qabbani, Serge Torsrkisian, Nabil de Freij, Riyad Rahhal, Jawad Boulos, Henry Helou, Akram Chehayyeb, Atef Majdalani, Ghazi Youssef. The petition urges the parliament to adopt the proposed amendment without any further delay to facilitate the election of General Suleiman and save the country from further turmoil. MP Ali Bazzi, a member of Speaker Nabih Berri’s bloc predicted Berri will reject the petition, because he considers the government that initiated the proposed amendment to be unconstitutional. Yesterday Hezbollah parliament bloc leader Mohammad Raad attacked Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government and accused it of seizing the presidential powers. Raad pledged "new complications" to the already tense situation. The Lebanese media has also expressed pessimism about Saturday's election session and predicted that it will most probably meet the fate of previous attempts and leave the country without a president until after the new year when the parliament will be in recess. Saturday Dec. 29 is the date set for the election of the president. |
| Posted by:Fred |