Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt. (Credit: Ahmad Azakir)
BEIRUT — The head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Joumblatt said Thursday that his party will align with the Lebanese Forces in the upcoming elections, scheduled for May 15, during a speech Thursday night.
Here’s what we know:
• “We will align with the Lebanese Forces,” Joumlatt said, adding that Wael Abou Faour, a member of his party, has visited the head of LF Samir Geagea to discuss the upcoming elections. “We will have other meetings,” Joumblatt said.
• Joumblatt also said that he will announce the names of his party’s candidates for the elections “within two weeks.”
• Commenting on Saad Hariri’s announcement on Monday that he is stepping down from political life and asking his party to do the same, Joumblatt said “Hariri’s decision has its own circumstances which pushed him into not wanting to run for elections but we have to continue.”
• Though they had their share of disputes, Hariri and Joumblatt were always strong allies during parliamentary elections that have taken place since 2005, when Hariri joined politics after the assassination of his father and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.