Jumblatt may resign to let son grab post

BEIRUT: MP Walid Jumblatt is seriously considering resigning from his post to give his eldest son a chance to run for the Chouf parliamentary seat, a source from Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party said.

“He is heading toward making this decision,” the source told The Daily Star Thursday, requesting to remain anonymous.

The source added that Jumblatt, 65, was currently discussing with Speaker Nabih Berri and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk the feasibility of holding a parliamentary by-election to fill the seat.

If Jumblatt were to resign, his eldest son Taymour Jumblatt would run for the post.

Born in 1982, Taymour Jumblatt, who earned a politics degree from the American University of Beirut, has been accompanying his father on visits to politicians in Lebanon and abroad over the past few years. Over the weekend, he visited Berri for the first time without his father, in attempt to get familiar with another veteran politician of Lebanon.

The leader of the Druze minority sect which is historically influential in Lebanese politics, Walid Jumblatt was elected an MP for the first time in 1992 and was elected in all the following electoral rounds since then.

Walid Jumblatt became the PSP’s leader in the early years of the country’s Civil War following the March 1977 assassination of his father Kamal Jumblatt, the founder of the party. But it is unlikely that if he resigns, Walid Jumblatt would abandon his political career altogether.

Media reports emerged Thursday that the PSP leader would resign from his parliamentary seat Jan. 31 and that April 19 was set as the date to hold by-elections to fill the post along with Zthe parliamentary seat in Jezzine left vacant by the death of MP Michel Helou last year.

But a source from the Interior Ministry, which organizes by-elections, said that no official decision has been made yet in this regard.

Asked about the issue of Jumblatt’s resignation, PSP spokesperson Rami Rayess said: “I cannot comment on this, he will choose the appropriate time to comment on this issue his way.”