Alain Aoun Asks Geagea to Back FPM Chief's Bid, Suggests Parliamentary Elections

MP Alain Aoun has called on Lebanese Forces leader and presidential candidate Samir Geagea to endorse Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun's nomination to the top post, saying the country must head to parliamentary polls in order to prevent a protracted presidential vacuum.

“The priority is for the election of a president, but should that not be possible, we must hold parliamentary elections,” MP Aoun, a member of the Change and Reform bloc, said in an interview to be published Monday by al-Liwaa newspaper.

“Should we fail to approve a new electoral law, it is possible to hold them according to the 1960 law, in order to produce a new parliament that can elect a president,” Aoun added, stressing that his political movement rejects any new extension of the current parliament's mandate.

Suggesting an exit aimed at putting an end to the ongoing presidential vacuum, the lawmaker urged Geagea to “make an initiative and endorse the presidential nomination of Change and Reform bloc chief General Michel Aoun, because he is the strongest among Christians.”

“Or else he will have no choice but to be a spectator of what the others will do,” the MP added.

Commenting on the issue of the FPM's ongoing dialogue with the al-Mustaqbal movement, Aoun said: “We are engaged in dialogue with al-Mustaqbal regarding the presidential vote, the parliamentary elections law and the characteristics of the new era.”

“But former Prime Minister Saad Hariri is now going through a period of indecisiveness, pending ripe circumstances,” the MP went on to say.

Parliament had failed to elect a successor to president Michel Suleiman -- whose six-year term ended on May 25 -- despite having held five electoral sessions for that purpose.

Until the moment only Geagea and Democratic Gathering MP Henri Helou have announced official presidential nominations, while Aoun has insisted that he will only run in the race as a “consensual candidate.”

Aoun's demand and the March 8 camp's rejection of Geagea's nomination prompted the Hizbullah-led March 8 forces to boycott four electoral sessions that required a quorum of two thirds of the 128-member legislature.

Y.R.