Al-Mustaqbal Urges March 8 to Endorse Presidential Candidate
Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc urged the March 8 camp to announce its candidate for the presidency so that he competes in the third round of the elections on Wednesday.
The bloc, which held its weekly meeting under MP Fouad Saniora on Tuesday, stressed that it “backed the candidacy of Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea in accordance with the agreement (reached) in the March 14 alliance and called on March 8 to announce its candidate to hold competitive elections.”
The Mustaqbal lawmakers rejected vacuum in the presidency, describing it as a “stabbing of the Lebanese Constitution and the choices of the people to hold onto the democratic system that is based on the rotation of power.”
Lebanese lawmakers failed in the first and second rounds of the vote to elect a new president due to differences between the March 8 and 14 alliances.
A new round is set to take place on Wednesday although it is almost certain that the parliamentary session would face the same fate of its predecessors due to the boycott of March 8 lawmakers.
Geagea, who is the March 14 alliance's only candidate, failed in the first round to garner the needed two-thirds of votes of the 128-member parliament.
In the second round, March 8 MPs boycotted the session, resulting in a lack of quorum.
March 8 hasn't yet officially announced its candidate. But the coalition’s officials have reiterated that Lebanon needs a consensual person in the country's top Christian post.
During the bloc's meeting, Saniora briefed the Mustaqbal MPs on the national dialogue session that was held at Baabda Palace on Monday.
Saniora said he hailed President Michel Suleiman's role in preserving the Constitution and the National Pact, and in contributing to lowering the tension in the country.
He added that the president, who leaves Baabda Palace on May 25, held onto dialogue as the only means to resolve the dispute between the rival parties.
G.K.
M.T.
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