NNA - President of the Republic, Michel Sleiman, asserted Friday that he is candidly and seriously striving to provide all required conditions to hold presidential elections on due date, urging all Lebanese factions to suspend their dependency on foreign powers and rally around Baabda Declaration which is the backbone of the national pact.


The 100th anniversary of the Municipality of Zouk Mekayel proved an opportunity for Sleiman to reach out to the Lebanese once more asking them to use their voting power as an assessment of the work their MPs have done over the past period.


"Citizens must ask themselves if they have chosen the politician who worked on keeping Lebanon neutral from external crises or the one who helped shove the country into conflict of axes? Have I chosen the one who preserved Lebanon's reputation and helped attract expats and tourists, or the one who gave an image of Lebanon as a corrupt state for kidnappers, drug dealers and a hub for terrorists and Takfirists?"


"Without accountability there will be no reform," added Sleiman.


Sleiman also advocated for administrative decentralization as the best approach to solve many of Lebanon's pending problems, as it would bring to centre stage qualified people, and revive posts in various regions, all the while limiting corruption. The path to this was consensus over a new electoral law.



It was no longer acceptable during this fate-determining phase in the region for Lebanon to stand idle and seem like it was awaiting the fate of others, according to the President.


Perhaps even more outrageous was the fact that international powers were seeking to aid Lebanon, while the Lebanese themselves continue to repeat past mistakes by clinging to the wills of foreign policies and ignoring the Baabda Declaration which aimed at keeping Lebanon impartial towards regional conflicts and formed a mandatory path towards national dialogue.


"The conference for the support of Lebanon which was held in New York last month is a rare historic precedence that should not be taken lightly," explained Sleiman, "and it is not a transient event for the five permanent members of the Security Council to meet for the sole purpose of providing an international umbrella to guarantee the stability and sovereignty of the Lebanese entity."


The greatest achievement that Sleiman's presidency could provide was the holding of presidential elections on time for the first time in forty years, a thing which Sleiman and all major international powers agreed on.


==============R.Z.