Reports published over the weekend about an imminent agreement between the two main Christian parties, the Lebanese Forces (LF) and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), on supporting former Finance Minister Jihad Azour’s candidacy for the presidency have generated controversial reactions.
LF MP Fadi Karam declared in a talk with LBC TV on Monday, May 29, that his party’s parliamentary bloc will have an “official stance with regard to the presidential issue in the coming days.”
“Reports that former minister Jihad Azour does not want to oppose the (Hezbollah-backed) candidate, Marada leader Sleiman Frangieh, are untrue. Azour is said to be ready to proceed in the event that his candidacy receives approval from a certain group, resulting in a joint announcement,” Karam said.
He noted that “there is growing sincerity among the parties, as they engage in detailed discussions.”
Caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari, a partisan of Frangieh, appeared to be confident that the Marada leader would ultimately assume the presidency.
“We are heading toward electing a new president of the republic, who is expected to be Sleiman Frangieh,” Makari told Voice of Lebanon Radio on Monday, May 29.
Criticizing Azour’s potential candidacy, Makari asserted that “a technocrat president does not align with the requirements of the current phase, as opposed to Frangieh, who has the necessary qualifications, believes in dialogue with Hezbollah and enjoys good relations with the Arab environment such as Syria.”
He went on to ask, “How could the opposition factions agree to support a candidate with no political program?”
MP Sagih Attie of the National Moderation Bloc revealed that the bloc’s MPs will not cast blank votes in case an electoral session is held in the next couple of weeks.
“We will take part in the decision-making process, but we will only announce the name of the candidate we will support inside the parliament in order not to disrupt the election,” Attie said in a radio interview.
He expected that the election would take place in the coming weeks due to extensive deliberations both domestically and internationally, coupled with mounting pressure in favor of holding the election.
However, Attie indicated that “no final agreement” is achieved over the candidacy of Azour, “who does not want to be a confrontational candidate (against Frangieh).” He ruled out the unfolding of a “Azour-Frangieh race.”
In a related development, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Naim Kassem called on the opposition to “liberate” the presidential election and vote for what he described as “a free president capable of saving the country,” not one who would serve as a puppet controlled by others.
Kassem tweeted, “Since the beginning, Frangieh’s candidacy has been supported by a suitable number that is growing while [the opposition] struggles to agree on an alternative candidate from a list of 16 names to confront Frangieh.”
