Geagea: 'Our candidate will get additional votes' tomorrow

BEIRUT — Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Wednesday he expects the party's candidate for the presidential election, MP Michel Moawad (Zgharta), will get additional votes during Thursday's electoral session at the Parliament.

"Tomorrow, our candidate will get additional votes compared to the last session," Samir Geagea said during an interview with Free Lebanon radio station.

Geagea had previously announced that Zgharta MP Michel Moawad is the presidential candidate LF is supporting. Moawad was the leading candidate during the first ballot on Sept. 29, receiving 36 votes, despite more than half the ballots being cast as protest votes. Following Parliament's failure to reach the two-thirds quorum required to hold the second presidential election session last Thursday, Moawad said that he rallied additional supporters for his presidential candidacy compared to the first voting round. 

Geagea also accused "some opposition parties" of not naming their presidential candidate and of "not adopting our opposition candidate either," inviting those who claim they want presidential elections to go through not to stand idle.

Speaking about the maritime border deal between Lebanon and Israel, Geagea said that "there is no link between the demarcation of the southern maritime border and the presidential election, as some are trying to claim, "such as MP Gebran Bassil for obvious political reasons," Geagea said while criticizing the Free Patriotic Movement leader, pointing out that "the demarcation began [a] long time ago, and what contributed to the completion of the matter was the American and European pressure, based on the state of the energy sector in the world." Geagea also insisted that Bassil cannot attribute settling the maritime border dispute with Israel to himself.

"As long as the ruling system, which consists of the Free Patriotic Movement, Hezbollah and their allies, has the biggest say in the country, nothing will change in the current economic situation in Lebanon, even if we have oil in the sea and on land," continued Geagea.

Geagea, Bassil and head of Marada movement Sleiman Frangieh, are all considered to be unofficial candidates for the presidency. The name of the head of Lebanese armed forces, General Joseph Aoun, is also circulating as a possible candidate, but none of them have officially announced their candidacy so far.