Prime Minister Najib Miqati met in the past days with a number of potential candidates for replacing embattled Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, who is facing a host of lawsuits inside and outside Lebanon, a media report said on Friday.

The latest European measures against Salameh and some associates are what pushed Miqati to consider Salameh’s replacement, especially after Monaco “requested judicial cooperation from the Lebanese Justice Ministry in filed related to Miqati and members of his family” and after “the French threatened sanctions should the obstruction of investigation continue,” informed sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Friday.

A group of protesters stormed on Friday the Ministry of Energy and Water in Corniche el-Nahr.

An activist was meanwhile seen on TV smashing then tearing up a picture of President Michel Aoun that was hung on a wall in the ministry.

Lebanon's electricity company is charging $16 million to supply power on the day of the May 15 parliamentary polls, a sum that exceeds the overall election budget by nearly 30 percent, the interior minister said.

Holding credible elections is one of the main steps Lebanon's major donors are insisting on to deliver more assistance to the country, which is mired in a deep financial crisis fuelled by endemic corruption.

Raja Salameh's lawyer has said that the LBP 500 billion bail that Investigative Judge Nicolas Mansour had ordered for the release of Salameh is an "unprecedented" order in the history of the Lebanese Justice Palace.

"The amount is unreasonable and illogical," lawyer Marwan al-Khoury said, after having filed an appeal demanding that the bail amount be slashed.

International Monetary Fund spokesman Gerry Rice has affirmed that the negotiations with Lebanon are making progress.

He said in a statement that the IMF delegation is working with the Lebanese authorities to prepare a reform plan that will help Lebanon and the Lebanese.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea slammed Hizbullah Thursday in remarks from Maarab.

Geagea criticized Hizbullah's electoral campaign slogan "we'll keep protecting and building," saying that no one has asked them to protect and that they are rather "putting the Lebanese in danger every given moment."

President Michel Aoun denied Thursday that he has sought a presidential system during his tenure, as he pledged to “expose every corrupt” before leaving office.

“When I tried to implement the constitution, they accused me of implementing a presidential system, whereas they are working on bankrupting Lebanon instead of fixing its situation and reviving its economy,” Aoun said in a meeting with a delegation from the Maronite League.

Investigative Judge Nicolas Mansour on Thursday ordered the release of Raja Salameh on a bail of LBP 500 billion, but Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun appealed against the decision and demanded that he be kept in custody.

Salameh for his part filed an appeal demanding that the bail amount be slashed.

A silent rift is growing between Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, ad-Diyar newspaper reported Thursday.

The daily said that, according to sources, Berri is very upset with Jumblat's alliance with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the General Directorate of General Security (GDGS) and the Embassy of Japan in Lebanon held Thursday an inauguration ceremony in Damour, to celebrate the opening of the General Security Academy for Training and Education and Cybersecurity, which was built by IOM with funding from Japan.