Report: Mustaqbal Movement to Support Geagea for Presidency
Al-Mustaqbal Movement will adopt the candidacy of its ally Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea for the presidency, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.
Sources close to the LF said in remarks published in the daily that Mustaqbal lawmaker Ahmed Fatfat, who attended Geagea's presidential program launching in Maarab on Wednesday, has reportedly informed the Christian leader of al-Mustaqbal's candidate.
“The movement decided to support Geagea's candidacy for the presidency,” the sources quoted Fatfat as saying.
The newspaper said that al-Mustaqbal's official decision is expected to be announced after the Easter holiday and the meeting of the March 14 General-Secretariat.
The daily said that the heavy participation of Mustaqbal officials in Geagea's presidential campaign launching is a further indication that the movement's chief Saad Hariri will support the LF leader's program.
On Wednesday, Speaker Nabih Berri called for a parliamentary session to elect a new president on April 23.
Berri has said that a candidate should receive two-thirds of votes to win in the first round of elections and half-plus-one or 65 votes of the 128-member parliament to win in the second round.
President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ends on May 25, but the Constitutional deadline for parliament to start convening to elect a new head of state started on March 25.
Geagea is the only presidential hopeful who had officially announced his candidacy.
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