The Coordination Committee of the Opposition Deputies announced the following statement: From the very first moment of the presidential election process, the opposition deputies have relied on constitutional mechanisms to accomplish it. They attended all electoral sessions and voted for a specific candidate, welcoming the efforts of friendly nations to Lebanon and their quintet committee, particularly regarding the alignment of its initial statement in Doha with the opposition’s specifications for the future president, as well as the affirmation in their latest statement of a consultative formula aimed at reaching an understanding within a specific and clear timeframe.
The opposition deputies have repeatedly shown their willingness to engage with all initiatives and are now open to consultations with both the Democratic Gathering and the Free Patriotic Movement, which previously produced a consensus on a centrist candidate. These consultations, as viewed by the opposition deputies, constitute a model of the required dialogue that brings the views of different parties closer together. However, they are keen to ensure that this does not turn into a cosmetic operation to cover constitutional violations, regardless of whether these have become conventions, or if they occurred once with everyone's consent, and should not undermine the initiatives of the quintet committee or revert to what the Speaker of the Parliament has proposed in a veiled manner that serves his approach and that of his team, which contradicts constitutional principles that have been imposed repeatedly in many previous instances, leading to the collapse we currently experience.
The opposition deputies have sought consensus on a candidate other than their main candidate, through an alignment with one of the parties from the other camp on a centrist candidate, who garnered approximately 60 votes in the last election session a year ago. This alignment still exists and has been reaffirmed multiple times by all those involved. All of this is aimed at completing the electoral process and electing a sovereign reformist president who will restore the authority legitimately and effectively, aligned with the aspirations of the Lebanese people to recover and reform the state on all levels.
Accordingly, the opposition deputies reaffirm their openness, both prior and subsequent, to timed consultations as currently taking place, free from the establishment of new conventions that violate constitutional norms, and not conditioned in any way, particularly regarding the imposition of a specific candidate's name, so that the other party may be convinced to open the doors of the parliamentary session for an open election session for the president, with the commitment of attendance from all blocs, in accordance with Article 74 of the Constitution, which mandates the meeting of the Parliament for this purpose by law.
