A number of lawmakers from Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) have acknowledged that the party is in “crisis” over the election of a new president of the republic.
FPM MPs have submitted blank votes in eight electoral sessions. Tensions reached new heights during the ninth session amid disputes between the FPM, headed by MP Gebran Bassil, and its ally Hezbollah.
The dispute revolves around Hezbollah ministers taking part in a recent government session in spite of the FPM’s disapproval. The FPM believes that the cabinet cannot convene given that it is operating in a caretaker capacity.
The FPM consequently retaliated to Hezbollah at the ninth electoral session. Instead of submitting the usual blank votes, some MPs wrote down the name Badri Daher, the former customs chief and close associate of the FPM who has been held in connection to the 2020 Beirut port blast, and others wrote down the name “Michel” and others “Mouawad”, knowing that the ballots would be considered void.
Michel Mouawad, an opponent of Hezbollah, is running for president.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one FPM MP told Asharq Al-Awsat that the movement was in crisis over the presidential elections.
He stressed that the FPM will not support the nomination of neither Marada movement leader Suleiman Franjieh, who is being backed by Hezbollah, nor Mouawad.
Any other option besides the blank ballot is “useless as long we can’t secure the right number of votes to elect a candidate,” he added.
“We will come up with a new option during the next electoral session,” he stated.
The next session is set for Thursday.
“We are confident that this crisis can only be resolved through agreement,” added the MP.
The “Shiite duo” of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, headed by Berri, have both been backing Franjieh’s candidacy and pressuring Bassil to go ahead with their choice.
Bassil, however, has been rejecting their proposal for numerous considerations, chiefly his yet undeclared ambition to run for president.
Sources from the FPM told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Bassil believes he is the most deserving of the position because he boasts the largest bloc at parliament.”
“He will not so easily relinquish his belief that a strong candidate must become president, meaning a figure who enjoys a large popular and parliamentary base,” they explained.
Bassil is “looking to local and foreign changes that may take place in the coming months that may turn the elections in his favor,” they revealed.
Moreover, the MP is unlikely to back the nomination of army commander Joseph Aoun given the sharp disputes that had erupted between them during the term of former President Michel Aoun, founder of the FPM and Bassil’s father-in-law.
Bassil had criticized how the military had managed the situation on the ground during the 2019 anti-government protests.
Some MPs and prominent FPM figures are leaning towards nominating other figures from the movement, such as MPs Alain Aoun, Ibrahim Kanaan and Nada al-Boustani, as president.
Bassil has not backed the proposal, saying he would rather support a consensus figure, such as former minister Ziad Baroud, should the FPM choose to stop submitting blank votes.
