BEIRUT: Politicians Tuesday intensified deliberations ahead of a parliamentary session to elect a new president as none of the presumed candidates have yet to secure a two-thirds majority.
Speaker Nabih Berri held talks with MP Michel Murr, MP Talal Arslan, head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, and Health Minister Wael Abu Faour, who headed a delegation from Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party.
Murr said that he and MP Nayla Tueni would attend Wednesday's morning session, adding that he expected quorum to be met.
"I will check with my conscience and Lebanon's interest and then I will elect a president on that basis,” Murr told reporters after the meeting in Ain el-Tineh.
Berri also discussed the presidential election with Arslan and the PSP delegation.
The speaker also met with a delegation from Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, headed by MP Imad Hout.
Several blocs have confirmed their attendance at Wednesday’s session, including lawmakers from Jumblatt and Berri’s blocs.
The Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and their allies in the Future Movement have also said they would attend the legislative sessions where MPs are expected to cast their votes for their preferred candidate.
Lebanon has entered its two-month constitutional period to elect a new president, but only Geagea and MP Robert Ghanem have announced their candidacy for the country’s top Christian post.
President Michel Sleiman’s six-year term ends on May 25.
None of the candidates, including those who consider themselves natural nominees, such as MP Michel Auon and Kataeb head Amin Gemayel, have secured the two-thirds majority needed for the first round of the parliamentary electoral sessions.
Berri has described MP Michel Aoun, leader of the FPM, as the March 8 coalition's candidate, but the former general has said he would only run for the post as a "consensus candidate."
Gemayel has also voiced willingness to run.
MP Robert Ghanem, who visited Geagea and Maronite Cardinal Beshara Rai Tuesday, said he was running for the election because he was a consensus candidate.
"I announced my candidacy on the basis that I am a consensus president. According to Article 49, the president is [responsible for] the nation's unity and works for its institutions,” Ghanem told reporters after his meeting with Geagea in Maarab.
"When I announced I was running, I was convinced that the power of moderation ... can restore state institutions,” he added.
Future MP Ahmad Fatfat also met with Rai and ruled out the possibility of Lebanon plunging into a presidential vacuum.
Meanwhile, Jumblatt met Monday with a Lebanese Forces delegation headed by MP Strida Geagea who handed the lawmaker a copy of presidential hopeful Samir Geagea's platform.
He also met with a delegation from the Free Patriotic Movement in his residence on Clemenceau.
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