LF, FPM Prepare to Take to Streets Thursday to Reject Parliament Term Extension
jean zouein
Posted On April 12, 2017
The Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement have started mobilizing their supporters to take to the streets on Thursday to reject a new extension of parliament’s term, media reports said.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper reported Wednesday that FPM chief Jebran Bassil presided overnight over a series of meetings at the movement’s headquarters in Sin el-Fil to put FPM officials in the picture of the developments.
“Bassil said the FPM should maintain full readiness to confront extension, asking the officials to await the zero hour for the declaration of the type of the protests which will be coordinated with the LF,” the daily said.
LF sources meanwhile told al-Joumhouria that the LF leadership has started contacting the LF officials in the regions, the student department and other LF sections, in addition to pro-LF municipal chiefs, with the aim of rallying supporters to take to the streets.
Protest preparations are however being accompanied by political contacts aimed at reaching an eleventh-hour agreement over the electoral law, media reports said.
“We will not accept extension no matter what that might cost us and the things that were tolerated prior to (President Michel) Aoun’s election (as president) will not be tolerated after it,” the sources warned.
Later on Wednesday, the LF issued an official statement calling on “all Lebanese in all Lebanese regions to fully close their businesses and stage a general strike on Thursday, April 13 to condemn the third extension of parliament’s term.”
“The real solution to the current crisis is the approval of a new electoral law that ensures the greatest extent of actual equal powersharing” between Christians and Muslims, the LF added.
“In this historic and critical moment during which the flaws in the implementation of the National Pact are being corrected, the LF urges citizens to be prepared for popular protests whose time and place will be announced later through successive statements and whenever the need arises,” the LF went on to say.
The FPM later issued a similar statement.
Source: Naharnet
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