BEIRUT — Tracy Chamoun, an ex-ambassador and
granddaughter of late president
Camille Chamoun, announced Monday she will run
for the presidency of crisis-hit Lebanon.
اضافة اعلان
“I announce to the Lebanese people and their
lawmakers ... my candidacy in Lebanon’s upcoming presidential elections,”
Chamoun told a news conference marking the launch of her campaign for the post,
which is reserved for
Lebanon’s Maronite Christians.
“I have a new vision for the republic, one that can
offer solutions to the economic, political, and social problems,” plaguing the
state, she added, styling herself as a bulwark against the incumbent ruling
class.
Elections are expected to be held before Michel
Aoun’s six-year presidential mandate expires in October, but many expect delays
in light of deep political divisions.
Chamoun’s candidacy is a rare move in a country that
saw its first female presidential candidate in 2014, when little-known lawyer
Nadine Moussa decided to run.
It took Lebanon’s bitterly divided political class
more than two years to elect Aoun in 2016 — a delay the country can ill afford
this time around in light of an unprecedented economic crisis.
Despite mounting woes, parliament has rarely met
since it was elected in May.
Chamoun served as Lebanon’s ambassador to Jordan for
three years before stepping down in August 2020 in the wake of a massive
explosion at Beirut’s port that she and many others blamed on government
ineptitude.
She is the founder of the Liberal Democrats Party of
Lebanon — one of the first in the country to be established by a woman but
which has little political sway.
The former ambassador is a granddaughter of Camille
Chamoun, who was Lebanon’s president from 1952 to 1958.
Her father Dany Chamoun was assassinated in 1990, a
murder blamed on rival Christian leader Samir Geagea.
Geagea, who is also expected run for president, was
convicted in 1994 for Chamoun’s killing — a charge he denies as politically
motivated.
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