Late on Sunday, a new step was taken in the process of nominating a candidate with wide support in the face of Hezbollah’s attempt to impose its choice for the presidency, Hezbollah’s ultimatum being Marada leader Sleiman Frangieh or vacuum.
The candidacy of Jihad Azour, former minister and Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund, was officially endorsed by the various components of the sovereignist opposition in a widely inclusive meeting at the residence of Michel Moawad, MP for Zgharta.
The meeting came following several days of negotiations involving all Christian factions, including the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), and it included MPs Salim Sayegh, Elias Hankash, Nadim Gemayel, Georges Okais, Fady Karam, Nazih Matta, Bilal Hocheimy, Elias Khoury, Mark Daou, Ghassan Skaff, Fouad Makhzoumi, Ashraf Rifi, and Waddah Sadek.
Late Saturday evening, at a dinner organized by the FPM’s Jbeil component, FPM head Gebran Bassil announced his bloc’s support for Azour’s candidacy.
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Moawad, who had initially been the opposition candidate and who garnered an average of 40 votes during the 11 parliamentary electoral sessions, finally announced on Sunday his withdrawal from the presidential race in favor of Azour.
“At a time when the Lebanese are faced with a choice between diktat and stalemate, we as opposition forces could not stand idly by,” said Moawad. He added that “the only solution was to broaden the scope of the agreement. This led to the presentation of the candidacy of Jihad Azour, who received almost unanimous Christian support, even if he is not our ideal candidate. He is a candidate accepted by all and capable of protecting Lebanon from further collapse and hegemony.”
Moawad recalled that when he presented his candidacy for the presidency, he had “put forward a project for a solution for all Lebanese,” irrespective of their political and regional affiliations. A project that aims to “restore confidence, re-establish the capable state and sovereignty, boldly tackle the issues of illegal arms, border control and Syrian refugees, and re-establish Lebanon’s relations with Arab and Western countries,” he elaborated.
“From the outset, I declared that it was not the candidate’s personality that mattered, but the plan he puts forward,” Moawad added. “I was aware of the difficulties I was going to face. However, the obstructionist forces (the Amal-Hezbollah duo) rejected the hand extended to them, preferring to maintain the hegemony project.”
For his part, Mark Daou, MP for Aley, asserted on behalf of 32 opposition MPs that “Jihad Azour is capable of garnering 65 votes. We are reaching out to Hezbollah and the Amal movement and their allies,” he said. “But at the same time, we are ready to confront any attempt to block the process.”
In this respect, Daou called on Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to convene the MPs for open electoral sessions until a president is elected. He asserted that Azour’s candidacy “is not a maneuver, but a serious attempt to launch the rescue process.”
“Azour is not the opposition’s candidate, nor the exclusive candidate of any parliamentary group,” Daou said. “The opposition intends to agree on his candidacy to lead the electoral battle. What the opposition is announcing today is aimed at winning him the presidency.”
Earlier in the morning on Sunday, opposition MPs and several other groups expressed their support for Azour’s candidacy in a statement issued by MPs Mark Daou, Waddah Sadek, and Michel Doueihy, along with former MP Ramy Fanj, the National Bloc, Takaddom, Red Line, North 3 Group, Southern Change Movement, and Intafed – Tripoli.
Now that the sovereignist opposition has announced its official endorsement for a candidate, the ball is in Berri’s court. He has no excuse for the ongoing closure of Parliament doors.
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