Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Beshara Boutros Rai slammed the ongoing presidential vacuum, deeming the failure to elect a new president a violation of the constitution, which stipulates that a new president must be elected two months before the expiration of the presidential mandate, and a violation of the National Pact, which grants the Christians in Lebanon the right to take on the position of the head of the state.
In his holy sermon delivered during Sunday mass in Bkerke, Rai urged the Lebanese politicians “to bravely arm themselves with the freedom of choice and opinion” in electing a new president before May 25.