FPM MP Says Hariri to Declare Support of Aoun's Nomination 'This Week'
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri will announce his endorsement of the presidential bid of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun “this week,” MP Alain Aoun of the FPM said on Monday.
“We knew that Hariri would return to Lebanon today,” Alain Aoun said in a TV interview.
Hariri returned Monday evening to Beirut from a foreign trip.
The ex-PM has been exploring the possibility of endorsing Aoun for several weeks now and on Sunday Education Minister Elias Bou Saab of the FPM announced that Hariri has officially decided to endorse Aoun's presidential bid.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.
Hariri launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.
The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
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