Salam Wants Neutral President to Avoid Victor-Vanquished Scenario
Prime Minister Tammam Salam reiterated that Lebanese lawmakers should elect a neutral president to avoid a power grab by either the March 8 or 14 alliances.
Salam told BBC television in Arabic on Wednesday that there are several candidates who have popular representation, parliamentary blocs and parties.
They are Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, the head of the Marada Movement, lawmaker Suleiman Franjieh, and former Kataeb Party chief ex-President Amin Gemayel, he said.
Two of them are members of the March 8 alliance and the other two are from the March 14 coalition.
“If any one of them wins the presidential elections, then a certain camp would emerge victorious and the other would be defeated,” he said.
But Salam warned that such a scenario would cause further tension in the country.
There are six or seven other respectable personalities who are being named for the presidency.
“Let's head towards that direction and avoid a victor and vanquished scenario,” he told BBC.
Salam called for electing “a neutral and centrist personality who is able at this difficult stage to fill the post and return things to normal.”
The country's top Christian post at Baabda Palace was left vacant after President Michel Suleiman's six-year tenure ended in May last year over sharp differences between March 8 and 14.
The last electoral round was set to take place on Wednesday but Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned it to August 12 over the continued boycott of several parliamentary blocs.
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