Who are Lebanon's current presidential candidates?
Speaker Nabih Berri has two presidential candidates: ex-ambassador to the Vatican and former army intelligence chief Brig. Gen. George Khoury and MP Farid Haykal al-Khazen, Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper reported on Friday.
“Berri has not also dropped the nomination of Marada Movement chief ex-minister Suleiman Franjieh, based on reserving everyone’s right to nominate themselves according to democratic norms,” the daily said.
Berri meanwhile agrees with Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Brig. Gen. Khoury, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Elias Bayssari and ex-minister Ziad Baroud, the newspaper added.
Bassil is strongly supporting Bayssari and Baroud, al-Anbaa said, adding that ex-minister Jean-Louis Cardahi has also emerged as a potential candidate backed by the Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the Orient and prominent Vatican officials.
“The opposition camp is meanwhile rooting for a serious candidate, Army chief General Joseph Aoun, who enjoys international support, especially from the U.S., in addition to other names including ex-minister Jihad Azour, ex-MP Salah Honein, MP Neemat Frem and ex-minister Nassif Hitti, while the French have added the name of the banker Samir Assaf to the list,” the daily added.
The newspaper, however, noted that Aoun and Khoury are the two leading candidates, while each of them is opposed by one of the political camps.
Baroud and Cardahi meanwhile have good chances in light of their technocratic characteristics, the daily said.
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