Geagea Hopes Aoun Would Attend Voting Session, Reveals Discussing 'Ideas' with al-Rahi to Prevent Vacuum

Lebanese Forces leader and presidential candidate Samir Geagea hoped on Wednesday that Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun would attend Thursday's parliamentary session at the parliament to elect a new head of state.

"I wish Aoun would attend Thursday's session, and if he gains the majority of votes I will be the first to congratulate him,” Geagea said after meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki.

"But boycotting and obstructing the elections, the democratic game, and the presidency is absolutely unacceptable,” he stressed. “This will make us face a deadlock.”

Geagea explained that his visit to Bkirki came to put the patriarch in the picture of his talks in the French capital Paris, which mainly discussed the upcoming polls.

"The patriarch and I lament how quorum will be obstructed another time at tomorrow's session and how we will not be able to elect a president for the Republic," he told reporters.

The presidential candidate added: "We thought a lot, the March 14 coalition and I as a presidential candidate, about what we can do."

"But we have not reached anything to avoid vacuum," the LF leader said.

He continued: "The first thing we should do after this election is draw an end to this constitutional obstruction, and this is what we are considering for the future. But now we are studying solutions to avoid falling into vacuum regardless of the price to be paid."

"I discussed several ideas with the patriarch which I can't reveal at the moment," he announced.

Regarding the confusion surrounding his statement about supporting Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun as a consensual nominee, Geagea clarified: "We discussed this suggestion among many others, and we talked about all presidential candidates. I gave my opinion in this matter and it ended at this point."

On al-Rahi's suggestion to extend the tenure of President Michel Suleiman, Geagea said: “After counting (the number of possible votes), it turned out that there is no majority at the parliament who wants to amend the Constitution. The discussion ended at this point.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has scheduled Thursday, May 22, 2014 as a date for a fifth round of votes at the parliament, after MPs failed for four consecutive sessions to elect a new head of state.

In the first electoral round, no nominee was able to gather the required number of votes to win the race. Geagea gained 48 votes, 52 MPs cast blank votes, 16 voted for MP Henri Helou and one for Kataeb leader Amin Gemayel.

However, quorum was not secured in the second, third and fourth rounds, which blocked the possibility of holding a voting session.

Suleiman's tenure ends on May 25.

S.D.B.

Y.R.