Elect a Lebanese president by majority

A futile dialogue about legislation and its validity has been ongoing in Lebanon. The dialogue is not based on logic, the constitution, or the interests of the state and its people. There are conditions and counter-conditions as each party plays to win a political round.

The Lebanese people do not care who wins, because they think they are the biggest loser due to parliament’s inability to elect a president. Parliament speaker Nabih Berri is unable to convince his most significant ally Hezbollah to attend parliament sessions.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary elections law makes us laugh and cry at the same time. There are 17 draft laws, and the parliamentary committees assigned to study them have miserably failed to achieve anything. This clearly shows the state of domestic and foreign divisions. No one will make any concessions in this regard as everyone wants to win, even if at the expense of the state.

Christians are being unjustly treated by not being asked what they think about that, especially since Syrian tutelage was repeatedly unjust to them. However, they are being unjust to themselves and to Lebanon by not agreeing on a viable draft law that is acceptable to their partners in the country.

No party in Lebanon can impose its will on others. Even Hezbollah, the strongest party militarily, has realized after a long period of wars and domestic struggles that it cannot impose an Islamic state.

It must be announced to the public who is obstructing the election of a president, and they must be accused of treason. Then MPs must elect a president on the basis of the majority (locally often referred to as “half plus one”). Then they must launch a real legislative workshop to approve a modern electoral law.

This article was first published in an-Nahar on Apr. 25, 2016.
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Nayla Tueni is one of the few elected female politicians in Lebanon and of the two youngest. She became a member of parliament in 2009 and following the assassination of her father, Gebran, she is currently a member of the board and Deputy General Manager of Lebanon’s leading daily, Annahar. Prior to her political career, Nayla had trained, written in and managed various sections of Annahar, where she currently has a regular column. She can be followed on Twitter @NaylaTueni