Abi Nasr calls on Salam to resign

Deputy Naamtallah Abi Nasr urged in a statement Saturday PM-designate Tammam Salam to step down and allow another leading Sunni figure to assume the responsibility of forming a cabinet, since Salam has been "under pressure" and could not perform his duties. Although the Constitution does not abide the PM-designate with a time limit to form a cabinet, Abi Nasr insisted that Salam's national duty should compel him not to stand idle while constitutional institutions are eroding and the economic and security situations deteriorating. "Perhaps the solution is in forming a new political system whereby the people directly elect the president," said the MP. He suggested that the president be given "wide prerogatives that allow him to rule with a homogeneous work-team that he chooses, while simultaneously applying a system of administrative decentralization."