Prominent Lebanese opposition lawmakers have demanded President Emile Lahoud's resignation, with at least one directly blaming him for an overnight bombing in a Christian area north of Beirut that injured 24 people. The calls followed a parliamentary session during which Lahoud, in a message read by the speaker, urged lawmakers to draw up an election law acceptable to all Lebanon's disparate factions for polls that are supposed to start on 29 May.Opposition lawmakers, led by Druze leader Walid Jumblat, accused Lahoud of presiding over security agencies that they blamed for Friday night's bombing in the Christian port city Junyah, 15km north of Beirut. Jumblat said he had warned Christian opposition partners to force Lahoud, a Christian, to resign, but his call had been previously rejected. "He (Lahoud) stayed and now he is playing with us by outbidding on sectarian issues and by bombs," Jumblat alleged.
Opposition lawmakers from across Lebanon's religious divides backed Jumblat's call. "We consider him (Jumblat) a principal partner in the building of a new state, which should be bringing down Emile Lahoud after the parliamentary elections because he is the head of the security regime," said Christian lawmaker Nayla Muawad, widow of President Rene Muawad who was slain in 1989.