Salam Wants to Fill Vacuum amid Report on Search for Other Candidates

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has reiterated his call for the swift election of a president amid a report that officials will begin to propose names of new candidates in an attempt to end the 22-month vacuum that has gripped the country.

Salam told his visitors on Sunday that all political parties should head to the parliament and exercise their constitutional rights through the election of a new head of state.

“It is no longer important” which candidate will be elected, said the PM, whose remarks were published in An Nahar newspaper on Monday.

“There should be consensus on any personality to fill the vacuum because the country can no longer tolerate the repercussions of such a vacuum,” Salam added.

But the next session set for the election of a president on Wednesday will have the same fate of its predecessors as long as MP Michel Aoun is holding onto his candidacy and lawmaker Suleiman Franjieh is doing the same.

Aoun is backed by the majority of his March 8 allies and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, who is a member of the March 14 coalition.

As for Franjieh, he is supported by the head of the March 14 alliance, Mustaqbal Movement chief MP Saad Hariri.

The failure to elect a president as a result of the lack of quorum pushed political circles to expect officials to start discussing ways to choose other candidates.

Some parties have expressed resentment at the alliance between Aoun and Geagea, the sources told An Nahar.

FPM and centrist sources said, meanwhile, that the movement and the LF are mulling to hold street protests.

While the two parties' sources denied to al-Akhbar daily that they would make any move ahead of Wednesday's session, they said they are “studying and preparing for popular and political plans” for later.

Baabda Palace has been vacant since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014.

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