NNA - MPs Melhem Khalaf and Najat Aoun Saliba made an appeal this evening, marking one month since their continuous presence at the Parliament Hall, to their fellow parliamentarians to join them now and remain at the House of Parliament until a President of the Republic is elected, noting that their failure to respond would denote "a flagrant breach of the provisions of the Constitution."

“Today, on February 19, 2023, a full month has passed since our continuous presence inside the Parliament hall. Time has passed, crises and wounds of the Lebanese people have deepened, the tragedies of the citizen increased, the state of law collapsed, the law of the jungle took the place of the constitution, justice and the law, the great chaos began - and we warned of it," the MPs said in their appeal.

"Today, at this tragic moment, we light the assembly with candles, to say that we, from Parliament, can illuminate the country, break through the wall of darkness and defeat injustice..We light a candle, perhaps its light illuminates the path of those who have strayed from the path of salvation and rescue. Today, and in this fateful moment, there is no salvation except with a stand of conscience that the deputies take before history to save the people and the country, and there is no salvation or rescue except by returning to the provisions of the constitution through reconfiguring the authority," Khalaf and Saliba underscored.

They urged all members of parliament to head immediately to the House of Parliament, "so that we will not leave before electing the head of state. This is how the provisions of the constitution are, and these are our constitutional obligations that are binding and restrictive for us," they said.

"By God, know that your refusal to attend and fulfill this entitlement is a flagrant violation of the provisions of the constitution...and a betrayal of the confidence entrusted in us by the people, a mass suicide, and even a deliberate killing and extermination of an entire people,” the MPs strongly underlined.

They ended their appeal by urging their fellow deputies of the nation "to take an honorable and heroic stand in the face of devastation, vacuum and the forces of darkness, because the aching people are waiting."

=========R.Sh.