Future Movement parliamentary bloc member Baarini says will seek re-election

BEIRUT — MP Walid Baarini, who represents Akkar in the Parliament and is a member of the Future Movement’s legislative bloc, said Wednesday he would seek re-election in the upcoming parliamentary elections, despite Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri’s retreat from politics.

Here’s what we know:

    • In a meeting with local dignitaries from Akkar, Baarini said he would “continue to stand by Hariri wholeheartedly,” and added that he intends to head an electoral list of Sunni candidates in Akkar running for office in the election, scheduled for May 22.

    • “Whoever wants to board the ship with us is welcome,” the MP added, according to the National News Agency’s report on the meeting.

    • Hariri on Jan. 24 announced he was stepping aside from politics and requested his party to do the same.

    • On Jan. 27, the US ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, met with Baarini and two other Future MPs from Akkar, Tarek Merhebi and Hadi Hobeich, during a tour of Akkar, interpreted by local media as a sign of US concern over the political battle in the region following Hariri’s withdrawal from politics. 

    • “I am a member of the [Future] parliamentary bloc and I am an ally,” Baarini told L'Orient-Le Jour earlier in February, but added, “I am not a member of the Future Movement.”