Advancing the parliamentary elections’ date to March 23, 2022, raised many stances and counter-stances, especially by the head of the “Free Patriotic Movement” Gobran Bassil, who considered that it deprives a certain group of young people from voting, and that “weather” would constitute an obstacle, but these arguments were unable to stop the approval of the joint parliamentary committees, after President Michel Aoun returned the law aiming to amend some articles of the electoral law to Parliament, justifying the reasons, of which some converge with those put forward by Bassil.
“Sawt Beirut International” interviewed one the most prominent personalities who contributed to the National Accord Document “Taif Agreement,” former minister and deputy Edmond Rizk, about advancing the parliamentary elections, and the motives behind its rejection, where he stressed that the House of Representatives is the master of itself, and it has the right to approve projects with the required majority, and the President of the Republic has the right to reject laws with justified reasons, and this assumes seriousness and logic. As for the moody behavior, it detracts from legitimacy.
Rizk considered that Lebanon has for years been living in a fait accompli, that is, outside the constitution and law, void of any deterrent, because there is no oversight reference in the Parliament, and because appealing to the people through packaged laws, reproduces the same authority, and what is required is to break through the siege of the fait accompli and return to the democratic system of states
He considered that Lebanon today is living a state of national decision’s confiscation, and the imposition of a fait accompli, and this leads to the destruction of the only pluralistic democratic system, pointing out that on the day the Taif Agreement was drafted, parity was approved after it was 6 for Christians and 5 for Muslims, and he was part of the drafting committee at the time. The goal was to create a unified pluralistic formula that does not exist in the East.
Rizk indicated that what is happening today is a disruption of this parity through practice, electoral divisions, and canned laws, and what is required is to return to the spirit of Taif, which emphasized a law that secures legitimate and correct representation of the people’s various groups and generations, and this was not available in the canned laws that followed the year 1992, which did not secure he true representation of the Lebanese people, and Lebanon has become based on the differences between its components.
All the legislative authorities, discretionary and moody actions and are not related to the essence of the Lebanese interest, and this leads us to say that Lebanon lives outside the spirit of national unity established by the “Taif Agreement,” noting that if there was an operational reference to deter the violation of the constitution, the executive authority would not be able to persist In its breach, but the control is non-existent and the correction is disabled, Rizk added.
Pointing out that Lebanon lives on the constitution and laws’s margins, because of two things: “The ignorance of those concerned, and bad faith of those who know,” attributing the cause to those who took power since 1988, and expressing regret for their contribution in delivering those who do not deserve it.
Rizk concluded, that there is a fait accompli that governs the country, and that is why there is always suspicion about hidden schemes behind every project or amendment. And what is required is a return to just and principled legislation, independent of factional interests. And it became clear that the ruling system, without excluding anyone, is not qualified to secure the Lebanese interest, saying that there is a structural incapacity, some of which are personal in terms of ability and inability, and others are consequential to aims and schemes, and none of all those in power has the capacity to assume responsibility.