A toy hand grenade was found Tuesday near MP Nadim Gemayel’s residence in Ashrafieh, a day before a heated presidential election session.

“A security expert examined the suspicious item near MP Nadim Gemayel’s home and it turned out to be a toy grenade containing no explosive material,” a security source told LBCI television.

MPs Paula Yacoubian and Najat Aoun Saliba of the Change parliamentary bloc on Tuesday announced that they will vote for ex-minister Jihad Azour in Wednesday’s presidential election session.

“Political realism obliges us to take the best decision and a dream president does not exist until today, that’s why we have decided to declare our support for Jihad Azour and we will hold him accountable should he be elected,” Yacoubian said at a press conference.

Outgoing Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri seem to maintain a strong friendship, despite political differences.

"Nothing can affect my relation with Berri," Jumblat told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday. On the same day, Berri told al-Akhbar

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday hit back at Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri over the issue of presidential dialogue.

“Dialogue is not when a certain camp picks a certain candidate and invites all others to dialogue to elect him,” Geagea tweeted, addressing Berri by name.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri would not postpone Wednesday's session, except on one condition.

Berri assured that the 12th session to elect a president would be held on time, unless Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi asked him to postpone it.

The Lebanese Forces’ Strong Republic parliamentary bloc has stressed the need that Wednesday’s presidential election session be “the final session leading to the election of a new president,” holding those who might block quorum responsible for “the continued vacuum and its financial and political repercussions on the country.”

The bloc also deplored “the intimidating rhetoric coming from some political forces that want to impose their candidate contrary to the parliamentary balance of power, speaking of a conspiracy, persecution and isolation, whereas the conspiracy lies in blocking the presidential vote and undermining stability and order.”

Ex-president Michel Aoun on Monday criticized Hezbollah for launching “treason accusations and threats through newspapers.”

“I did not let them down, neither in the July War, nor in keenness on the resistance nor in the confrontation against Daesh (Islamic State group),” Aoun said in an interview with the journalist Sami Kleib, when asked whether a mending of ties between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement is possible.

MP Walid al-Baarini of the largely-Sunni National Moderation bloc has said that the grouping of lawmakers will attend Wednesday’s presidential election session without voting for Suleiman Franjieh or Jihad Azour.

“Amid the current alignments, the bloc will only take part in the elections through a consensual candidate on whom most parliamentary blocs would agree,” Baarini told the al-Anbaa news portal of the Progressive Socialist Party.

The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, on Monday accused the rival camp of “using” ex-minister Jihad Azour to block the election of “the candidate of the resistance,” in reference to Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh.

“The people of the resistance are being competed against by a group of Lebanese who are nominating and backing a person whom they don’t want to be elected as president. They are only using him to block the election of the candidate of the resistance,” Raad said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has accused the Axis of Defiance of over-reacting to the nomination of former minister Jihad Azour.

"They called him Tel Aviv's candidate and an American conspiracy between the LF and the Free Patriotic Movement," Geagea told Nidaa al-Watan newspaper, in remarks published Monday.