Maurice Kaldawi
Daily Star staff

Information Minister Michel Samaha said Friday that those aspiring to assume the presidency should proclaim their program at least one year ahead of the presidential elections, due next November, so that their future plans and proposals could be scrutinized.
Speaking in an interview with Lebanon Radio, Samaha said the questions surrounding the presidential elections had not yet been resolved, adding that it was “wrong to accelerate” such matters toward their conclusion.
Samaha affirmed that nobody had the right to raise the issue of renewing or extending the presidential term of office “except when the matter is raised in a constitutional and official manner.”
Asked whether President Emile Lahoud would seek an extension of his term of office, Samaha said: “At least, if he does not do so, he will give his opinion on the subject.  Why should he be asked at the present time to give his opinion and agree or disagree to something which has not been raised?”
“What I am interested in is that the (forthcoming) president has a clear stand on basic issues like President Lahoud,” he said.
Samaha expressed support for the position adopted by Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, who is opposed to constitutional amendment, and affirmed that the current circumstances “are not helpful or suitable” for the present government.
He said the current government might stay on but make no achievements, and it was not possible to go on for another year of “counting the days.”
The minister underlined the need for government to be more active in meeting the people’s “pressing needs.”
He said there was “no crisis in governing, but a crisis in understanding our Constitution and the functioning of the (state’s) institutions.”
Samaha accepted that relations between Damascus and Washington were not good and said the US Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act “was not based on real evidence,” adding the “liberation of Lebanon” clause was designed to “confront Syria and exert pressure on it.”