After the feuding political sides vetoed names of consensus presidential candidates drawn up by Maronite Patrirach Nasarallah Sfeir, Lebanon seemed to be heading back to square one. The new state of affairs prompted French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to rush back to Beirut on Sunday for his sixth visit in as many months.There was speculation that Wednesday's parliamentary session to elect a new president may be postponed till Friday, prompting fears of civil unrest and the formation of two rival governments. Kouchner said he was "less confident" about reaching a solution to Lebanon's political crisis after news circulated that the Hizbullah-led opposition vetoed presidential nominees Butros Harb, Nassib Lahoud Robert Ghanem and Michel Khoury. In turn, leading officials within the ruling March 14 coalition have reportedly vetoed Michel Edde, while favoring Ghanem.
The daily An Nahar said Monday that Speaker Nabih Berri and parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri were each separately expected to discuss the Ghanem-Khoury problem with their allies. According to An Nahar, information made available to March 14 said that a senior opposition figure had informed an international side that the opposition vetoes Harb, Lahoud Ghanem and Khoury and that the opposition could accept Edde and Lebanon's Central Bank governor Riad Salameh.
It said the emergence of Salameh's name made the opposition demand an amendment to Sfeir's list such as Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman be included. LBC has reported that Michel Edde went to Syria on Saturday to get Syria's blessing , but Edde denied.
Parliament is to convene on Wednesday to elect a new president to succeed pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whose term runs out on Friday. Three previous attempts have failed because the ruling coalition and the opposition have been unable to agree on a candidate, with the opposition blocking sessions or threatening to deny the legislature a quorum.
Failure to elect a new president could result in a power vacuum and possibly the formation of two rival governments. Under the constitution, the cabinet takes over executive power if the president's post became unfilled.
An Nahar said the "veto battle" has led circles to believe that there was a lack of global and regional understanding of a guarantee mechanism for finding a consensus presidential candidate.
Many political analysts fault the March 14 alliance for accepting that the list of candidates from Sfeir goes to Speaker Berri first for decision, knowing that the pro-Syrian , Hezbollah led opposition will use the list to shift the battle from the parliament to Ain el Tineh ( Berri's home). One analyst told Ya Libnan "Speaker Berri is acting as the whole parliament. Where is the democracy ? . This is bound to result in a new weak president that will not be able to lead the country in this critical period . March 14 alliance should have insisted that the list goes to the parliament on November 21 and let the parliament vote for the best president of the republic."
Cardinal Sfeir was angered by the vetoes. He said it is up to the leaders to add or delete any name they want to the list that he has reluctantly submitted.