Intense Consultations to Agree on Names of Compromise Presidential Candidates
The names of several presidential candidates have been discussed as potential figures to fill the ongoing vacuum at the Baabda Palace, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.
An Nahar newspaper reported that head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri discussed last week with French President Francois Hollande in Paris the names of four candidates from the March 14 alliance and three centrists.
The names were later discussed during a meeting between Hariri and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday night in Rome.
The daily said that al-Rahi agreed on the names of one candidate from the March 14 coalition and two centrists to run for the presidential elections, noting that the nomination of one of the centrists requires a constitutional amendment.
However, al-Liwaa newspaper reported that Hariri and al-Rahi discussed the candidacy of four nominees, who are consensual and weren't mentioned in media speculations.
Al-Akbar daily said that Hariri discussed with al-Rahi the names of three candidates that were agreed upon by Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, who in turn had announced his candidacy after the term of ex-President Michel Suleiman ended in May.
The three newspapers didn't reveal the name of any of the candidates.
March 14 officials, according to the daily, will focus in the upcoming period on pressing international powers to agree on staging the presidential elections ahead of the Day of Independence on November 21.
Lebanon plunged into a presidential vacuum due to the failure of the rival March 8 and 14 camps to agree on a compromise candidate.
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