Press Digest for Tuesday April 02, 2013

5^min

The following are summaries of today's major stories published in the Arabic press. LBCI does not edit press digest articles for content, giving English-language readers insight into the various views expressed in newspapers across the Arab world.

Sami Gemayel calls for eliminating illegitimate “arms”

Kataeb Party's Central Committee Coordinator MP Sami Gemayel stressed that the March 14 coalition is clinging to the notions of sovereignty and democracy as hence rejects the presence of “illegitimate arms” in the country.

In this context, Gemayel told Al-Liwaa Daily that this coalition is holding consultations in a bid to agree on an electoral law that ensures apt representation of Christians, and hoped not to limit their choices to the 1960's electoral law and the Orthodox Gathering's electoral law.

On another note, MP Gemayel said that Hezbollah and the Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun called for considering Lebanon as one electoral district in order to reap the majority of the votes, hence decreasing the value of votes of the Christian community in Lebanon.

President Sleiman: I will not repeat the ‘mistakes of complacency’

Sources quoted President Michel Sleiman as saying that he is exerting efforts to lay the foundations of a political system that dovetails with the status quo, and mainly to hold the elections on their constitutional due date, adding that he ‘will not repeat the mistakes of complacency’ that he committed with March 8 and the March 14 coalition.

In this regard, al Akhbar Newspaper reported that President Sleiman agrees that the outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati is still the best official to be re-elected as Premier, since he was capable of maintaining security and stability in the country, in the face of numerous obstacles.

PM Mikati braces for being re-elected as Premier

Al Akhbar Daily reported that the outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati is bracing for his reelection as Premier. According to the Daily, Mikati's standards can be classified as follows in terms of his rule: “I refuse to stand against my community, the political forces should take into consideration the issues lying at the core of the Sunni sect, the government ‘should be mixed’ and must adopt the policy of dissociation.”

It is worth noting that Mikati stressed the need to revive the work of the government and to "sow the seeds of understanding" among the Lebanese political parties.

MP Nuhad al-Machnouk: We refuse a ‘political’ government

MP Nuhad al-Machnouk said that the discussions held in Saudi Arabia with the Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri tackled governmental issues, and highlighted the stances of the Future bloc that call for a government of technocrats to be formed during the next transitory period.

“The next government should be able to supervise the upcoming parliamentary elections. In fact, the formation of any ‘political’ government is out of the question,” he said.

An-Nahar Daily reported that Saad Hariri informed the delegation of the Future bloc that he will hold contacts with his allies and will brief the bloc on the name of the candidate to be proposed in a bid to form the new government.