Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday adjourned a presidential election session to October 31 over lack of quorum as Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh warned al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri against endorsing the presidential nomination of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri held a meeting on Wednesday with Kataeb party leader Sami Gemayel at the Kataeb headquarters in al-Saifi.

The visit comes in the framework of consultations that Hariri said will wrap up to address the issue of electing a president after more than two years of vacuum at the top Christian position.

Member of Parliament Dory Chamoun, alluded to the founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun without naming him and said that old people are usually requested to submit a health record when they wish to sell a piece of property or apply to governmental positions, let alone if they apply to the post of presidency.

“If somebody wants to sell a piece of property and he is above 80 years of age, he is usually requested to submit a medical certificate stating qualification of carrying out such an operation, let alone if he is a candidate for the presidency,” said Chamoun in a statement he made after a parliament session to elect a president that failed to achieve quorum.

An Islamic State official, Hisham Shehab Khodr Qaddour, in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh turned himself in on Wednesday to the Army Intelligence, reports said.

LBCI said that Qaddour is the uncle of al-Nusra Front official, Haitham al-Shaabi. It also added that his father is Hisham Qaddour, aka Abu Hurairah, an official with Shaker al-Absi who was killed in north Lebanon.

Public transportation drivers held a sit-in on Wednesday near the mecanique centers across Lebanon protesting the increase in inspection fees on motor vehicles and a decision to privatize the Mechanical Inspection Authority.

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh is expected to begin “extensive” contacts with political paries in order to garner support for his presidential candidacy after the reports said that Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri might support his rival MP Michel Aoun instead, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday.

Franjieh will contact Speaker Nabih Berri, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and the Kataeb party, added the daily.

Mustaqbal MP Ahmed Fatfat stressed that no promises were made to MP Michel Aoun to support him in the presidential race and that head of the Movement, ex-PM Saad Hariri did not ask his candidate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh to withdraw from the race, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

“The statement of the Mustaqbal bloc did not mention in a phrase that it continues to support Franjieh simply because there is no new decision in that regard,” Fatfat told the daily.

Patriarch al-Rahi's envoy Bishop Boulos Sayyah said it is normal for Bkirki to elect MP Michel Aoun for the presidency because he has the support of the majority of Christians, as he stressed that Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi would be pleased if founder of the Free Patriotic Movemnet, Aoun, wins the polls, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

“The latest political developments at the presidential level are promising after (ex-PM Saad) Hariri gave momentum to the file. Patriarch al-Rahi rejoices for the election of Aoun and he has echoed that several times,” said Sayyah.

The Free Patriotic Movement is “cautious” regarding the latest efforts of al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri to end the country's presidential vacuum, an FPM official said on Tuesday.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri told the members of his parliamentary bloc on Tuesday that he might make the “bitter choice” of endorsing Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun for the presidency as some Mustaqbal MPs described such a step as “suicidal,” media reports said.