PM says Lebanese election will be held on time

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati with Maronite Patriarch Mar Beshara Boutros Rai Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that no one dares to discuss the delay in the date of next year’s parliamentary elections. He said that the elections will be held on time, whoever the president is, because it is a constitutional entitlement.
Mikati visited Maronite Patriarch Mar Beshara Boutros Rai on Friday evening in Bkirki to congratulate him on his appointment as a Cardinal. Following the visit, Mikati said that: \"The visit was to congratulate him on his new rank. It reflects another message from the Pope on the importance of the Maronite Church and its role in Lebanon.\" In response to a question about the assurances he conveyed to the cardinal he replied: “Our country is built on a partnership between all of us and is based on love, there should be no barriers to the communication between all Lebanese people, we should unite in order to save it and protect it.”
As for the electoral law and the possibility of postponing the parliamentary elections, he said: “I hope the elections will be held on time and there should not be anything to hinder the Lebanese from practicing their democratic right.” Mikati added: “I feel reassured when I see the Lebanese people in solidarity with each other and when we work together in the service of our country. Nobody should boycott the election as we should learn from our previous mistakes. We are in very difficult circumstances and we have to unite with each other.”
Prime Minister Mikati had made a telephone call to the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in New York congratulating him on the decision of the General Assembly of the United Nations to recognize Palestine as an observer state. Mikati said in the phone call: \"What has been achieved confirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people in their homeland, and must be an incentive to exert more effort to achieve the aspirations of the Palestinian people and their return to their homes\".