Next ten days might witness presidential 'surprise'

The next ten days might witness a presidential “surprise” amid behind-the-scenes political contacts, political sources told the al-Anbaa news portal of the Progressive Socialist Party.

Informed sources meanwhile told ad-Diyar newspaper that the past seven days witnessed the emergence of a new presidential initiative.

The aforementioned initiative calls for each of the main political camps to have its declared presidential candidate before heading to parliament for a presidential election session, the sources said.

The candidate who wins the most votes would be declared president, the sources added.

“The leaders of the opposition will be pressed to unify their stance and endorse a single candidate,” the sources said.

“In parallel, a deal is being prepared to distribute the first-grade state jobs on the political parties, in an attempt to facilitate the presidential election and guarantee the interests of the parties concerned,” the sources added, noting that the posts would include the central bank governor, the army chief, the security appointments and the ministries concerned with the IMF negotiations.

“The end of the month of May will be decisive in terms of ending the vacuum and all the fierce stances of the opposition’s political leaders are aimed at drawing proposals and achieving bigger gains,” the sources said, noting that “30 centrist MPs will decide the outcome of the battle.”