Debates on presidential elections start in Lebanon

Presidential elections in Lebanon have taken center stage in the country's political deadlock, as pro-government members of parliament (MPs) weighed their next step to ensure the formation of a tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.

The Daily Star reported Wednesday that Lebanese pro-government legislators called again on parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to convene a parliament session to ratify the international tribunal.

But a government source told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) TV station that the government will not take rapid steps toward creating the court under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter until a report is issued by UN top legal adviser Nicolas Michel.

Meanwhile, the deeply divisive issue of the upcoming Lebanese presidential election, scheduled to be held in September for the first time since Syrian troops pulled out of Lebanon in 2005, is becoming the new focus of the ruling coalition.

Debates on the issue have started to take place after House Speaker Nabih Berri, a major leader of Lebanese opposition camp, have announced earlier this month that the parliament would be convened on Sept. 25 to elect a new president based on a two- thirds majority of the assembly.

The pro-government Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan on Sunday

told LBCI that his party's main focus now is the issue of the presidency, adding that the matters of the tribunal and the government are "behind us now."

While anti-government MP Ali Bazzi, a member of Berri's Amal member, announced that the legislative will convene to elect a new head of state to replace President Emile Lahoud without the presence of the "unconstitutional" government.

Lahoud's mandate was controversially extended by three years in September 2004 after parliament adopted a constitutional amendment to that effect.

The anti-Syrian bloc, which won the majority in parliament after the elections in 2005, has repeatedly called on Lahoud to resign, but the pro-Syrian president has insisted on serving out his term.

Lebanon is facing its worst crisis since the end of the 1975- 1990 civil war. Opposition ministers, including all Shiites, resigned from the government last November because of Seniora's refusal to give them 11 seats in the 30-member cabinet and effectively hand veto power to his opponents.

Lebanese opposition alliance led by Hezbollah launched an open- ended sit-in in downtown Beirut on Dec. 1, 2006, in a bid to topple the government, declaring the anti-Syrian cabinet illegitimate and demanding early parliamentary elections and a new electoral law.

The Lebanese government, led by Prime Minister Fouad Seniora and backed by the March 14 parliamentary majority coalition, has rejected such calls and accused the Hezbollah-led protest of trying to obstruct the creation of the international tribunal.

Source: Xinhua