Report: Franjieh Launches Contacts to Form 'Supportive Front' for his Nomination

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Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh is expected to begin “extensive” contacts with political paries in order to garner support for his presidential candidacy after the reports said that Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri might support his rival MP Michel Aoun instead, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday.

Franjieh will contact Speaker Nabih Berri, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and the Kataeb party, added the daily.

Media reports said that Hariri has told the members of his parliamentary bloc during a meeting on Tuesday that he might make the “bitter choice” of endorsing Free Patriotic Movement founder Aoun for the presidency as some Mustaqbal MPs described such a step as “suicidal.”

An official statement issued after the meeting had said that Hariri “informed the bloc that he has started consultations with all political parties with the aim of speeding up the election of a president.”

The meeting came after overnight talks between Hariri and Franjieh and three days after the ex-PM returned to the country from a foreign trip that lasted several weeks.

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, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between their two parties.

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.

Comments 4
Missing humble 28 September 2016, 10:08

Poor M14 stuck between the pest and the cholera...

Missing humble 28 September 2016, 10:08

Anybody but not the cholera...

Thumb Southern...... 28 September 2016, 11:04

both, Aoun as Frangieh are anti ISIS/Nusra terrorists, both are anti wahhabi extremism, both support the Syrian govt in its war against terror, both advocate for maintaining the best relation with Iran and both consider Israel is the only enemy of Lebanon and arabs; in another words: both belong to the axis of resistance, so that Lebanon will remain free and independent.

Missing sanctify 28 September 2016, 11:53

They are playing hide and seek and enjoying it!