BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea held “lengthy talks” with U.S. Ambassador David Hale about the presidential election, the LF media office said over the weekend, as the fate of this week’s parliamentary session to elect a candidate remained in question.
Geagea, a presidential hopeful, and Hale discussed the political situation in the Middle East and spoke extensively about the election, stressing the need to hold the polls within the Constitutional deadline.
The two met in Geagea’s residence in Maarab.
Geagea, the March 14 coalition’s presidential nominee, received 48 votes in last week’s parliamentary session against 52 blank ballots mostly from the March 8 coalition which has not yet announced its own candidate.
The second round of the election, in which a candidate must garner 65 votes to win, is scheduled to be held this Wednesday.
Several MPs expressed pessimism regarding Speaker Nabih Berri's ability to achieve quorum, saying that contacts among rival groups have so far been fruitless.
MP Michel Mussa, from Berri’s Development and Liberation bloc, said there were no new developments to shine a light on Wednesday’s session, defending the March 8 coalition's decision to cast blank ballots.
"The circumstances are still the same. No quorum and no election in next week's session because things remain subject to consultations and contacts,” Mussa told a local radio station.
“We cast a blank ballot because things were not clear to us yet,” he added.
MP Alain Aoun, from MP Michel Aoun's bloc, said contacts were ongoing between his party and other factions.
"We are holding contacts between [us] and all parliamentary blocs including the Future bloc and these may not result in anything before Wednesday,” he said.
The lawmaker also noted that Aoun would only run in the election if the former General received the support of both the March 8 and the March 14 groups.
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