The President of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, addressed the Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, in a statement saying: "Mr. President Nabih Berri, you have not yet fulfilled your higher duty. It is good, Mr. President, after you have sensed and seen that essential parliamentary blocs and several independent and change-oriented deputies are not convinced by what you call a dialogue, which, in fact, is not dialogue but rather an insistence on wasting more time and prolonging the presidential vacancy, that you reconsider the initiative you launched."
He added: "Those who intentionally obstruct internal solutions are the ones who disrupted the election sessions you called for, from the first session to the twelfth, as they hastened to withdraw from Parliament, before the first round concluded, in front of all media. Meanwhile, those who participated in the sessions, refused to withdraw from them, and called for successive rounds until electing a president were striving and continue to strive for Lebanese solutions to the presidential entitlement."
Geagea pointed out: "What dialogue are you talking about, Mr. President, when one of the pillars of the obstruction stated plainly: 'We want a dialogue to convince them of our candidate,' while dialogue should arise from a stalemate and a conviction of the need to seek a common ground, not by adopting one viewpoint at the expense of another, nor by clinging to a candidate who received a maximum of 51 votes, which is rejected by wide Lebanese and parliamentary segments, nor by obstructing the constitution and insisting on a candidate lacking the qualifications for election. Furthermore, the constitution is clear; it states that presidential elections are held through successive rounds, and transforming dialogue into a mandatory passage for elections constitutes a coup against the constitution."
He continued: "You said, Mr. President, 'Let those who refuse dialogue present us with an alternative,' and I present you with an alternative based on your own stance, where it was literally stated by you: 'We could meet, and if we agree, that is good for the country; if we do not agree, it does not mean the end of the road, but in both cases, we go down to Parliament and resort to the ballot box in successive and open election sessions until we can elect a president, and let whoever wins win.' So why not simply consider, Mr. President, that since we did not agree, we could then directly move to the second part of your initiative by calling for a session with successive rounds until we reach the election of a new president for the country?"
Geagea concluded by saying: "Your statement that there are those who intentionally block any solution is completely incorrect, and here I present to you the solution that you should have adopted since the start of the constitutional deadline and not now, which is to call for a session with successive rounds until the president is elected, but 'better late than never.' Therefore, we urge you to call for an open session today before tomorrow. The solution, Mr. President, is in your hands, and all that is required of you is to call for an open election session with successive rounds, and it is most likely that we will have a president of the republic by the second round."
