BEIRUT: Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh has said that the political crisis in Lebanon is a presidential election battle and not an electoral law debate, adding that the new presidential term didn't achieve its purpose. "This is a presidential battle and not one to restore the rights of Christians," Frangieh, the former presidential candidate, said in a talk show aired on LBCI Thursday evening. Frangieh warned of failing to agree on a vote law and dragging the country into vacuum, adding that "no sustainable changes have occurred" after the election of President Michel Aoun as the country's 13th president after an almost two and a half year vacuum. He called for agreement among rival parties to avert a "catastrophe." Politicians are still scrambling to agree on a new vote law. "We have fought a fierce battle for over 10 years to elect a strong president, but when the strong president arrived we didn't see any changes. The country didn't advance in the past six months," Frangieh said.

Frangieh, who ran against Aoun in the presidential race, said that "Aoun was a symbol of change and reform but what we are seeing doesn't meet our aspirations." FThe Marada chief said that the best solution to the electoral law deadlock is to agree on a vote law and conduct the elections within three months. He expressed his vehement support for a proportional system "because we believe in partnership." Frangieh told his interviewer that rivals are afraid to adopt the Orthodox vote law. The Orthodox Gathering Law, as it is called, was proposed in 2012 by former Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli, and was supported mainly by the FPM. It essentially calls for each sect to elect its own MPs within the country as a single district. Critics, however, said it would aggravate sectarian divisions in the country.The Marada leader also blasted Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil sectarian-based qualification vote proposal. "Bassil doesn't want to take the stairs one step at a time ... He is working on isolating or ending any competition." He said that Bassil had proposed the same vote law since 2005 but with different forms. "They want to fix a vote law that suits them."