BEIRUT: The Lebanese Forces kicked off a two-day congress Friday to debate and approve bylaws that will go into effect next year, in a bid to revamp the party’s organizational structure.
“The Lebanese Forces cannot be a party [based on] an individual. It is a party of a cause, and history,” said LF leader Samir Geagea during the opening of the first session shortly before noon on Friday.
Addressing some 100 party members at the congress, Geagea thanked all those who contributed to what he said was a painstaking process of drafting the bylaws.
“The drafting of the bylaws that are now in our hands took five years of continuous work by the drafting committee to develop and rewrite them,” Geagea added.
Important bylaws related to the election of the party’s leader are articulated in articles 100, 101 and 102.
According to article 100, a candidate for the LF’s presidency should be an LF member for more than 15 years, while article 101 stipulates that the president be elected directly by LF members and article 102 limits his term to four years, with the right to run for consecutive terms.
Geagea also remarked that the work of the congress would benefit the entire country, and not just LF partisans.
“What we are building is for every one of us [Lebanese], and not for LF members only … such work will lead to a new developed political atmosphere in the country which will gradually correct the distortions that have characterized Lebanese political life since the country’s independence,” Geagea said.
According to Geagea, the party congress will render the LF a strong and democratic institution that will enjoy the elements required to survive in the future.
“While every single day throughout the year has its importance for the LF, April 29 won’t be [just] any other day in the history of the LF,” said Geagea.
The LF s media office announced that the gathering had approved article 21, on the jurisdiction of geographically-based party “centers,” without amendment, and articles 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15 and 17, which cover membership requirements, after amendments were introduced.
With the articles being voted on individually, the work of the congress could be extended, as each bylaw must be endorsed a simple majority.
Later Friday, the LF said that after several other amendments to bylaws were discussed at the congress, the LF forum was adjourned and would reconvene on Saturday. – The Daily Star