AP News, October 22nd, 2007
Lebanon's presidential election has been postponed until next month to give rival factions time to agree on a compromise candidate, officials said Monday.
The 128-member parliament, dominated by anti-Syrian legislators, was scheduled to meet Tuesday to try for a second time to choose a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, who steps down Nov. 24. An opposition boycott prevented the previously scheduled election last month.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri decided to postpone the parliamentary session to elect the president until Nov. 12 in order to give the rival camps more time to find a consensus candidate, said a statement issued by the parliament's secretariat general.
The postponement was harshly criticized by a hardline member of the anti-Syrian majority in parliament who accused the Hezbollah-led opposition and its Syrian backers of seeking to scuttle the election altogether.
"The postponement of the session is a clear violation of the constitution by the parliament speaker ... under the slogan of a consensus on a president," legislator Wael Abu Faour said.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told his Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos, by phone Monday that his country "supports all efforts ... among the Lebanese people to elect a consensus president according to constitutional norms," Syria's official news agency reported.
Legislator Saad Hariri, leader of the parliamentary majority, has held several rounds of talks with Berri, who is aligned with the opposition, in a bid to agree on a president acceptable to the anti-Syrian coalition and the opposition.
Berri has been quoted by An-Nahar and As-Safir newspapers as saying that a consensus on a president is "forthcoming."
