The May 15 parliamentary elections come amid a “delicate situation” and will decide Lebanon’s “strategic choice” in the coming period, Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh has said.

“Our choice is known and clear and we’ve been engaged in the battle of choices for the past 30 years. We have not changed and we will not change,” Franjieh said in an interview on al-Mayadeen TV.

Ex-PM Fouad Saniora has called on the Lebanese to vote for a “strong state” and against “gun silencers and explosives,” in an apparent jab at Hizbullah, a few days ahead of the May 15 parliamentary elections.

“We are building and they are destroying and sabotaging. We are the ones who want Lebanon to be Arab, sovereign and independent in words and deeds,” Saniora said at a press conference.

Protestors in Lebanon denounced the killing of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh for the third day.

Lebanese and Palestinians gathered Friday in Tyre, after a candlelight vigil took place last night outside the United Nations ESCWA building in Beirut.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has launched a vehement verbal attack on the Lebanese Forces and its leader Samir Geagea, during an electoral rally in the Keserwan-Jbeil district.

“I’ve heard them repeatedly saying that those who vote for the FPM would be voting for Hizbullah, what a joke! In turn I tell you that those who vote for the LF would be voting for Daesh and for Israel and its regional allies,” Bassil charged.

President Michel Aoun on Friday lamented that “some of the money that is being paid in the electoral juncture is coming from abroad,” adding that he is “betting on voters’ awareness and their rejection of being commodities that can be bought and sold.”

“There are candidates who are exploiting the difficult economic and social circumstances and paying money to appropriate the choice of voters, which should be free of any restraints,” Aoun told a delegation from the European observer mission that will monitor Sunday’s elections.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan on Thursday warned that boycotting elections would be “surrender,” while stressing that Lebanon should not be “surrendered” to the “enemies of Arabism.”

“The upcoming parliamentary elections are an important juncture in Lebanon’s history and we have given our directions and instructions to our Lebanese sons and brothers to take part and not to boycott,” Daryan said in a meeting at Dar al-Fatwa with the Saudi, Kuwaiti and Qatari ambassadors.

Cabinet has approved in a session Thursday to renew the expired passports for voters in the parliamentary elections.

The passports will be renewed for one day, only to be used for voting on May 15. The renewal cost will be LBP 200,000 for each passport.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari met Thursday at Dar al-Fatwa in Beirut with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, the country’s top Sunni Muslim cleric.

During the meeting, Bukhari expressed “the firm solidarity of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries with the Lebanese people, and our permanent keenness on Lebanon’s security, stability, territorial integrity, Arab belonging and independent political decision.”

The U.N. Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) is concerned about the prolonged pre-trial detention, overcrowding and “deplorable living conditions in places of deprivation of liberty” that it observed during its second visit to Lebanon, a U.N. statement said.

The third phase of parliamentary elections, dedicated to the public employees who will oversee Sunday's polls, kicked off Thursday across Lebanon.

The Lebanese had voted abroad in 58 countries on Friday and Sunday, with a 60 percent turnout.