Naser Kandeel
A media and political attempt is being made to discuss the words said by the political aide to the Speaker of Parliament, Representative Ali Hassan Khalil, about his willingness to proceed with the election of former Minister Suleiman Franjieh, if he has the support of 65 votes, in a way we have not seen the likes of, with dozens of times repeating the same words regarding the candidate, Representative Michel. Moawad or whoever represents his camp. Everyone in this camp says that the issue is the availability of a candidate who collects 65 votes. Indeed, many in this camp invented the heresy of the quorum of 65, which was publicly rejected by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
The issue is never that someone wants to elect a president with 65 votes. The issue is precisely in answering the question that if a presidential candidate has the opportunity to convene a constitutional quorum for the election session with the presence of two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives, i.e. 86 deputies, and the deputies of the two large Christian blocs, that is, the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement, do not agree to his election, is his election considered fulfilling the conditions of the charter? Even if he meets the constitutional and legal conditions, and the 65 here is a symbolic key to indicate victory in the second round with a quorum of 86 and possibly the election of 80 deputies. Thus, we repeat the question, is the election of a president with 80 votes with a quorum of 86 deputies, without the representatives of the forces and the movement voting for him, considered chartered, legitimate and constitutional, knowing that among these Christian deputies there are more than the number of any of the two blocs alone?
The issue is here in particular, and former Minister Suleiman Franjieh wants to be elected by a number of votes, giving his presidency the impetus that allows him to launch strongly at the beginning of his term, and translates his consensual position into opening a national dialogue and opening the door to naming a consensual prime minister, leading to the formation of a national unity government, if possible. Rather, he seeks to be elected from the deputies of the two major Christian blocs, or at least one of them. This is what his allies in the Amal Movement and Hezbollah duo seek, and the equation is: Is the approval of one of these blocs on the name of the presidential candidate a prerequisite for nomination? The question is directed to Representative Marwan Hamadeh, who wanted to wink at the idea of the 65, believing that it serves the initiative of the Progressive Socialist Party leader, Walid Jumblatt, which seeks to liberate himself from the prior restriction of the issuance of the consensual nomination by one of the two blocs, in a precedent that is difficult to accept except in a federal system, and not Jumblatt’s tightening in his initiative. The refusal of federalism is only an implicit refusal to try to devote a kind of vote within the sect on presidential candidates belonging to the sects, which was originally not respected by the two blocs when all the representatives of the Shiite sect and the only two Shiite blocs in the House of Representatives supported the candidacy of President Nabih Berri, and the two Christian blocs voted with a white paper!
Everyone knows that if the candidacy of former Minister Suleiman Franjieh had the support of 65 deputies, and the quorum of 86 deputies was confirmed for the election session, this means that in addition to the two blocs of the Amal movement and Hezbollah and the direct supporters of Franjieh’s candidacy, who all make up 40 votes, 46 deputies have gathered. They are ready to secure a quorum and recognize the result knowing that it is in favor of electing Franjieh, which means that out of these 46 there are at least 25 deputies, ready to vote for Franjieh, and the obvious question is whether the result in this case will actually be a victory of 65 votes. The natural scenario that everyone knows is that if the two major Christian blocs, i.e. the Forces and the Movement, boycott the election session to disrupt the quorum, then the 86 attendees will most likely elect Franjieh and win from the first round, and this is a remote possibility. She participates in voting for Franjieh’s election, as the justification for the debate is denied, because the presence of the deputies of any of the two blocs means her approval of the election, even if by granting constitutional legitimacy to the electoral session and securing its quorum.
Talking about the 65 votes is like talking about the quorum of 86, borrowing the number from the text of the constitution to explain the idea of quorum and election, and the quorum for electing Franjieh or others will be over 90 and for electing Franjieh or others will be over 80, because without some kind of consensus there is no election or quorum, And when consensus occurs, the rosary is repeated, and all the rest is political bullying!
