Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian (L) meets with Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grain Serail on Jan. 28, 2022. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT – Following a meeting Friday with Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian at the Grand Serail, Prime Minister Najib Mikati stated that there will be no Sunni boycott of the elections, and that they will take place as scheduled.
Here’s what we know:
• “It is true that Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his reluctance to run in the parliamentary elections,” Mikati said following the meeting, “but we will definitely not call for a Sunni boycott for the good of the community, and whoever wants to run should run, and the elections are taking place on the scheduled date on May 15th.”
• There has been intense speculation about a possible boycott of the election by the country’s major Sunni factions after Future Movement leader and three-time former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced he will not participate and called on his political party to follow suit. Former Prime Minister Tammam Salam had previously said he will not run in the election either. Since Hariri’s announcement, several prominent Future Movement politicians have indicated they will not participate in the election.
• Last night, Hariri ally Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, said that his party will be participating in the elections, and that they will ally with the Lebanese Forces party.
• At the meeting between Mikati and Derian, the two also discussed Lebanon’s frayed relations with Gulf countries, the National News Agency reported.
• Also on Friday, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said that he does not intend to call for a boycott of the legislative elections. Siniora was thought by many to be Hariri’s successor as leader of the Future Movement in the elections, however Hariri’s announcement Monday has cast doubt over this assumption.