NNA – Representative Melhem Khalaf held a press conference in the House of Representatives this afternoon regarding the legislative session and its laws related to the problem of the possible vacancy in the army leadership. He said: “The legislative session that was called for Thursday morning, 12/14/2023, and some of its laws on its agenda, are a coup against the constitution, an undermining of democracy, and a destruction of the rule of law in Lebanon: In any case, it comes within the series of destructive institutions.” Constitutionalism, which we have been witnessing since the moment the presidency became vacant, and even before that.
Firstly – It is useful to recall that on February 11, 2023, 46 representatives issued a statement in which they determined – among other things – the correct constitutional position regarding the impermissibility of holding a legislative session in light of a vacancy in the presidency, in accordance with Article 75 of the Constitution, in the face of, at the time, A legislative session was to be held to pass a law to address the problem of the vacancy in the position of Director General of Public Security. We return to repeat that the Representative Council is “an electoral body, not a legislative body,” and therefore the Representative Council is prohibited from legislating before electing a President of the Republic. This specific and explicit constitutional text does not allow for any expansion in its interpretation, and this prohibition is absolute and does not tolerate any exception or distinction between what is “legislation of necessity and legislation of non-necessity,” as there is no priority higher than the priority of electing a president of the republic, but rather the constitutional obligation imposed on the gentlemen. Representatives limit their mission only and exclusively to this entitlement until it is completed. The constitutional and legal texts and principles have not changed since that time, and therefore there is no change in the position regarding a legislative session to pass a law to address the problem of the possible vacancy in the army leadership or to pass other laws. In any case, we did not participate in any legislative session throughout the past period.”
He added: “Secondly – in any case, the proposed law proposal related to the problem of the possible vacancy in the position of army command – no matter how many forms and camouflage it – is flawed in form and content. If we accept for the sake of argument and as an assumption that we have a President of the Republic and the Parliament can legislate, it cannot approve A law such as the proposed law, in compliance with the general principles that prohibit legislation for the benefit of specific people and for specific circumstantial purposes, which constitutes a law by analogy, which contradicts the general and absolute nature of the law, since the intended persons of these laws are specific people. One of the basic principles of legislation is that the law should have :
- The character of inclusion and equality
- The character of abstraction (caractère abstrait)
- And the character of generality (caractère impersonnel)
- The nature of obligation (caractère normatif et impératif)
This is what makes the proposed law contrary to all these principles and absolutely invalid and therefore inevitably subject to invalidation before the Constitutional Council.
Third – We add to this that the adoption of the aforementioned law makes the legislative authority a servant of the interests of some individuals working in the executive authority, and the Representative Council loses its role in monitoring this authority, so it is no longer possible for the legislative authority to monitor those who approved the law according to their standards; All of this also violates the principle of separation of powers and is considered an infringement by one authority over another.
Fourth – It is unacceptable for the executive authority to continue the approach of blaming the Parliament for its inability, assigning it, every time, the responsibility of addressing issues of their nature, type, and nature that fall at the core of the government’s tasks. In any case, the argument of “raison d’etat” can only be relied upon by the government, and the problem of the possible vacancy in the army leadership must be addressed exclusively within the executive authority with several solutions that have become known to everyone, including the decision of the Minister of Defense to postpone Dismissal of the army commander.
He continued: “Fifth – for all of these reasons stated above, holding a legislative session, whatever its reason, is still in violation of the constitution and represents a fatal blow to the foundations of the Lebanese system, in addition to the proposed law related to the problem of the vacancy in the leadership of the army – among other draft laws and proposals.” proposed for approval – flawed with fundamental defects and absolutely invalid. All of this creates a constitutional obligation for representatives not to participate in any “session” of this kind and not to acknowledge it, and any participation by them or acknowledgment by them of it is considered a blatant violation of the provisions of the Constitution. Therefore, we will not participate in any A “legislative session” before the election of the head of state, and we will not recognize any of its laws, and therefore we apologize for attending the aforementioned session because we do not want to violate the constitution.
Sixth – To date, 329 days have passed since our constitutional stance within the Parliament, and I wish we could learn from all our accumulated misfortunes and be aware, we, the nation’s representatives, that the key to solutions lies in compliance with the first, long-standing constitutional obligation that has been imposed on all of us for more than a year, which is to meet immediately and by rule of law to elect. Chief of state. I wish we could read the opinion of the scholar and former representative, Hassan Al-Rifai, about the election of the head of state, contained in the book “Guardian of the Republic,” where he says, among other things:
“All members of the Representative Council must attend the session designated for electing the President of the Republic. Article 49 of the Constitution did not impose a specific quorum for the election session, as the Constitution required all members of the Council to attend…”
“Intentionally preventing the election of the President of the Republic is tantamount to disrupting the regime and a coup against it…”
“The claim that absenteeism is a democratic right is absolutely false and constitutes a violation of the Constitution…”
He concluded: “In any case, we repeat that what will happen tomorrow morning is considered a constitutional coup, and we must all confront it in all available ways!”
=============EG.
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2023-12-13 10:45:53
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