MP Michel Mouawad, who garnered 36 votes in the first round of the presidential election session on Thursday, said the session witnessed “a key step on the course of uniting the opposition,” seeing as “a significant majority from the opposition” voted for him.

“Today 36 MPs granted me their confidence and four expressed their support for me despite their absence for various reasons,” Mouawad said at a press conference after the session.

The Lebanese parliament on Thursday held a first presidential election round in which no candidate managed to garner 86 votes needed to win from the first round.

As 63 MPs cast blank ballots, 36 voted for MP Michel Mouawad, 11 voted for entrepreneur and philanthropist Salim Edde, 10 voted for "Lebanon", one voted for Mahsa Amini who died in Iranian morality police custody, and one voted for "the approach of (slain ex-PM) Rashid Karami".

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil announced Wednesday that the FPM-led Strong Lebanon bloc will cast blank votes in a presidential election session scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday.

“We will take part in tomorrow’s session and will cast blank votes, because we don’t have any candidate whom we support until now,” Bassil said at a press conference.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has met with Arab Tawhid Party leader Wiam Wahhab.

A Hezbollah statement said the talks tackled “the most important files and issues that are currently preoccupying the Lebanese, as well as the developments in the region.”

The Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and the Progressive Socialist Party want MP Michel Mouawad to be the opposition camp’s candidate in Thursday’s presidential vote session, but Mouawad is “not accepted by the Change MPs because they want a candidate who is not part of political alignments,” MTV reported on Wednesday.

The TV network added that the LF, Kataeb, the PSP and the Change bloc will likely vote for ex-MP Salah Honein, who is an “acceptable” candidate for the Change bloc.

Most of the country’s parliamentary blocs and independent MPs will take part in Thursday’s presidential election session, several blocs and TV networks said on Wednesday.

Confirming that the Lebanese Forces-led Strong Republic bloc will participate in the session, LF sources told LBCI TV that the party had intensified its contacts with the opposition parties over the past hours in a bid to reach consensus over a single candidate ahead of the session.

MP Charbel Maroun of the Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc was on Tuesday summoned for judicial interrogation over his recent remarks against Higher Judicial Council chief Judge Suheil Abboud.

The interrogation session has been scheduled for Thursday.

A Free Patriotic Movement delegation led by FPM chief Jebran Bassil held talks Tuesday at Dar al-Fatwa with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, three days after the latter presided over a broad Sunni meeting.

“We witnessed at the Dar al-Fatwa meeting patriotic stances on which all Lebanese agree. We came here to stress that we stand by the mufti in all the remarks that were voiced, especially as to the constitution and the Taef Accord in terms of decentralization, the creation of a senate and the abolition of sectarianism,” Bassil said after the talks.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called Tuesday for parliament to meet Thursday to elect a president to replace Michel Aoun whose term expires at the end of October.

"Berri called for a session to be held at 11:00 am (8:00 GMT) on Thursday September 29, 2022 in order to elect a president," a statement from his office said.

Parliament on Monday approved the 2022 state budget with 63 MPs voting for it, 37 voting against it and 6 abstaining out of 106 lawmakers present in the session.

The budget includes a three-fold wage hike for public sector employees and the armed forces as well as for retirees.