Report: Electoral Alliances Shaping, Five-Party Coalition Excludes LF, Kataeb
Hizbullah has been reportedly “taking all positive steps towards Prime Minister Saad Hariri” and “giving him a push” to practice his role as premier in response to Saudi Arabia's latest stance when “it tried to impose a “fait accompli” and force the PM to resign,” Ad Diyar daily reported Tuesday.
Based on this, electoral alliances for the 2018 parliamentary elections have started taking shape and “consultations began between five political parties including Hizbullah, AMAL Movement, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Progressive Socialist party and al-Mustaqbal Movement,” according to the daily.
The “five-party alliance is expected to form joint electoral lists in different electoral districts in Lebanon, but would exclude the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb party. It is not unlikely for head of Mustaqbal, PM Saad Hariri, to isolate the LF from the alliance,” it added.
The daily expected said alliance “to garner a majority of 75 to 80 votes in the Parliament out of 128 deputies.”
On the other hand, the “Lebanese Forces are preparing to confront said coalition,” it added.
Therefore, it is likely for head of the LF Samir Geagea to ask the LF ministers to “withdraw from the Cabinet” a couple of months before the elections start in order to “form an opposition front against the alliance,” according to Diyar.
The LF is gearing up for its electoral campaign based on that, said the daily, although a meeting with the Kataeb party has not yet taken place nor has it been learned if an alliance between the two parties will happen in the upcoming months.
“Electoral ties and cooperation have grown stronger between President Michel Aoun (FPM founder) and Speaker Nabih Berri (head of AMAL). This led to rapprochement between the two who are expected to wage the May 2018 in joint electoral lists with Hizbullah as well,” it concluded.
Source: Naharnet
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