We will vote for Frangieh, not a blank ballot: Speaker Nabih Berri

The Speaker of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, put an end to speculations and rumors that have circulated since the announcement of the next session to elect the president on June 14th by stating that the Amal Movement and Hezbollah will not cast a blank ballot.

This article was originally published in, translated from the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar.

Berri affirmed, "We will vote for Sleiman Frangieh. All of us will vote for him, including our allies. None of us has said that we will cast a blank ballot. We voted with a blank ballot before announcing our nomination for Frangieh. We would not be in this situation today if they had accepted the dialogue I called for twice."

When asked if his position was decisive and final, the Speaker replied, "Didn't we nominate him? We did. If we do not vote for him, it means we have abandoned him. Other blocs may want to cast a blank ballot because they are not satisfied with the candidates. This is a political stance, and we are not considering this option."

Regarding concerns about the session being disrupted due to complaints that follow it, Berri answered, "There are some who previously said and continue to say in the opposing team that they will disrupt the session if their candidate does not win. But they asked us to schedule a session, and we did. Let's see what happens after that."

When asked if the presidential election session will be as insisted upon, Berri replied, "That is what I do not know. They said they now have a serious candidate. Let's see."

When asked about the division within the parliament that usually accompanies the presidential election sessions, Berri attributed it to the electoral law, saying, "It is the worst electoral law we have ever known."

"It is a 'mini-Orthodox law,' nobody in the world has heard of the parliament being prevented from legislating and the government from convening due to necessity," Berri added. 

Coordination meetings

On the eve of Berri's invitation to the session next week, Hezbollah and Amal Movement initiated coordination meetings to discuss the steps and options that can be taken in the face of the opposing group's plan to reject Frangieh's nomination.

This comes after the aligning between the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and opposition forces on the nomination of former minister Jihad Azour, whom the opposing team sees as a challenging candidate aimed at pushing him to withdraw support for Frangieh and agree on a third candidate.

However, sources told Al-Akhbar that these meetings would expand to include the Marada Movement, as trilateral meetings will begin involving the political assistant to Hezbollah's Secretary-General, Hajj Hussein Khalil, MP Ali Hassan Khalil, and former minister Youssef Fenianos to discuss expected scenarios and possible steps to be taken.

In this context, informed sources stressed that all options are on the table, starting with boycotting the session or obstructing the quorum, knowing that Azour's nomination is not serious and that the aim is to solidify positions and secure votes for Azour that surpass those obtained by Frangieh. This may be used by FPM's Gebran Bassil as an additional threatening way, believing that it will push the pro-Frangieh camp to retract his nomination."