Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized his Maronite rival — Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil, an unofficial candidate for the presidency — whom he accused of causing the current presidential vacuum, the state-run National News Agency reported Saturday.
Former President Michel Aoun's term ended on Oct. 31 and Lebanon has since been without a head of state— a vacancy that coincides with a caretaker government.
"The presidential vacancy ... has two causes: the first is that someone is planning his steps in the presidential election according to logic that has nothing to do with Lebanon. He does not pay any attention to the interest of the Lebanese people nor to the supreme national interest," Geagea said during a meeting with MPs from his party.
"What matters to him are his particular interests and those of a certain regional project to which he is deeply linked, and he drapes himself in the slogan of consensus to justify his action," Geagea castigated.
While Geagea did not mention Gebran Bassil by name in his statement, he referred to the so-called regional project of Hezbollah— an FPM ally and openly pro-Iran party, which favors the election of a candidate who does not oppose its agenda.
Bassil recently visited Paris and said that "there will be no president of the Republic" without his party's approval. FPM has repeatedly voted blank in each electoral session.
The second reason for the presidential vacancy, according to Geagea, is "the expectation of developments decided by 'some' and of which we know nothing."
"The 128 members of Parliament must exercise their constitutional duty by attending the electoral sessions," Geagea added.
MPs have failed to elect a new president in each of the six electoral sessions held since early September. No political agreement on a candidate was reached between the different political groups, as is customary in Lebanon. Lebanese Forces MPs have consistently voted for Zgharta MP Michel Moawad, who received 43 votes in the most recent session.