AMERICAN LEBANESE COORDINATION COUNCIL

“Closing down parliament during the past months puts the great responsibility for this move on whoever closed the house, irrespective of the pretexts,” the statement said.

It noted that “Parliament is the place where MPs in all nations of the world meet to tackle national issues and take decisions regarding them.”

The statement said ministers “who have abstained from attending government meetings are not less responsible than others. They, at the same time, abstain and head to their respective ministries’ offices to process whatever actions they want … This is deplorable and denounced.”

The statement recalled that French officials had asked Bkirki to propose a list of candidates, stressing that it is better for the Maronite Church to propose such a list to prevent the nation from heading to chaos.

The French officials, according to the statement, informed Bkirki that a candidate from the list would be elected.

However, the statement noted that after the list was proposed Bkirki was asked to propose a second list of candidates or to add an extra candidate to it, but the seat of the Maronite church responded by saying: “This is what we could do. You are free to add or drop any candidate, and the list remains lost.”

It called for “the speedy election of president before it is too late. This is the responsibility of all deputies.”