Aoun raises pressure on defiant judges, MP Raad accused the "majority" of interfering with constitutional institution

`Right to convene` divides members of constitutional council
Source: Daily Star, 10-7-2006
BEIRUT: MP Michel Aoun threatened over the weekend to sue Constitutional Council judges who do not convene with the rest of the body on Monday amid deep divisions between members who favor the meeting and those who consider it illegitimate.
"Even when the mandate of the council`s members expires they are forced to remain in their position until they`re replaced by other members who have taken their oaths before the president," Aoun, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement, said during a ceremony to honor FPM lawyers on Saturday.
Early last week, council head Amin Nassar called on the body to convene after a freeze in its activities since last August. However, five of the council`s 10 members rejected Nassar`s call, arguing that his mandate had expired and insisting they would only meet upon the request of Parliament and Cabinet.
Aoun criticized council members who withdrew last August following the parliamentary majority`s attempt to pass a new law to dismantle the panel, saying they had committed a serious violation by pulling out of the body. "Judges cannot be sensitive to the point of withdrawing," he said.
Nassar, along with four other members, decided to leave the council in order to push for the Cabinet to replace two of the body`s members whose mandate expired in August 2003. Aoun said that the Cabinet failed to make these appointments as they had promised in their ministerial policy statement, attacking the "ruling party" for coming up instead with a law that dissolved the entire body.
"The most important constitutional institution, the Constitutional Council, is being hampered today," he said, adding that by subjecting the council to their will the majority had undermined its role. "The council was founded to protect the minority from majority despotism and to ensure that legislation is done within the limits of the constitution," he said.
Aoun said the failure of the council in the past to fulfill its duties allowed slain Premier Rafik Hariri to "possess Beirut," adding that acquiring public property cannot be done to serve the interest of a private company, in a clear reference to SOLIDERE.
Following last year`s parliamentary elections, Aoun`s bloc challenged the legitimacy of 10 majority MPs. They recently opposed a law to form a new Constitutional Council and called on the former council to convene and look into the constitutionality of this law.
A council member told The Daily Star that the purpose of Monday`s meeting at the council`s headquarters is not to look into the challenges but rather to hold discussions to see whether it could legally convene.
According to media reports, members opposed to Nassar`s invitation and whose mandate had not expired yet are holding a separate meeting on Monday.
Meanwhile, MP Mohammad Raad, who heads Hizbullah`s Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc, accused the majority of interfering with constitutional institutions.
Hizbullah, which earlier this year signed a memorandum of understanding with the FPM, has backed Aoun`s bloc in its challenge of the new council law.
Raad also called for "moving toward forming a national unity Cabinet, even if only temporarily, to ease tension in the country and prevent future crisis."
During a meeting in support of the resistance on Sunday, Raad called for a way out of the crisis faced by the Cabinet - of which Hizbullah is part - adding that the situation has had a negative impact on the country.