Berri: We'll vote for Franjieh, won't cast blank votes

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that his political camp will vote for Suleiman Franjieh in the upcoming presidential election session.

“We will vote for Suleiman Franjieh. We will all vote for him – we and our allies. None of us has said that he will cast a blank vote. We cast blank votes before our nomination of Franjieh and had they accepted the dialogue that I had called for twice we would not have reached the current phase,” Berri said in an interview published in al-Akhbar newspaper.

Asked whether his stance is decisive and final, Berri said: “Haven’t we nominated him? We have. If we don’t vote for him we would be abandoning him. There might be other blocs that want to vote blank because they’re not satisfied with the candidates. This would be a political stance and we don’t have this intention.”