Mouawad, Gemayel say won't allow election of Hezbollah candidate

MP and presidential candidate Michel Mouawad said Wednesday that the opposition will not allow the election of any candidate supported by the Axis of Defiance.

"They can threaten as much as they want," Mouawad said in a press conference, after he met with Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel.

Gemayel, for his part, said that the Lebanese are the ones who choose their president and that "handing the country to Hezbollah" will make the Lebanese people suffer from "more subordination and humiliation."

Lebanon has been without a head of state since Michel Aoun's mandate expired last year, with a caretaker cabinet overseeing the responsibilities of government amid a financial collapse that is stretching into its third year.

Lawmakers have held 11 rounds of voting to name a successor to Aoun, but no candidate has garnered enough ballots.

During the voting sessions, the Shiite Duo MPs have cast blank votes, although they openly support Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh, but the latter has still not gathered the needed 65 votes but is reportedly "close" to it.

Hezbollah's ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, oppose the election of Franjieh, and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea had also said that his bloc would boycott any voting session that would elect Franjieh.