The ongoing negotiations between the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, MP Talal Arslan, and former Minister Wiam Wahhab, to form a coalition list for the Chouf-Aley district in Mount Lebanon (13 parliamentary seats) is entering a critical stage without reaching a minimum level of understanding. He is pushing towards relieving the knot that delays her birth, and related to the continuing dispute over bringing MP Farid al-Bustani and former minister Naji al-Bustani in one list.
Asharq Al-Awsat learned from sources that keep pace with the mobile negotiations between Basil and Arslan, in which Wahhab participates, that the lack of time is crowding the people of one house and embarrassing them. “Because there is only a week away from the deadline set for registering lists of candidates with the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, without the possibility of agreeing on the formation of a coalition list comprising two of the Bustani family from the town of Deir al-Qamar al-Shufiya, Farid and Naji on one list.”
The accompanying sources revealed that, “It was agreed to hold a meeting in Arslan’s house in Khaldeh with Wahhab, Naji Al-Bustani and Basil, but the latter apologized at the last minute for not attending on the pretext that he asked to be given a deadline until he could convince Farid Al-Bustani to withdraw his objection to his candidacy and Naji Al-Bustani.” On one list.” She pointed out that Wahhab anticipated the meeting, which was held in Khalde, in Bassil’s absence, by meeting President Michel Aoun before heading to Rome. And she said, “Aoun, although he does not favor the candidacy of Naji al-Bustani on the coalition list, on the other hand does not veto his candidacy in the event that the concerned parties agreed on his candidacy.”
And she confirmed that “Basil asked Arslan and Wahhab to extend the deadline, which was their request to persuade Farid Al-Bustani to withdraw his objection to electoral cooperation with Naji Al-Bustani, even though they had met the head of the movement in private.” And she said, “Arslan returned and met Basil in his house in Khaldeh, followed by another meeting with Farid Al-Bustani, without reaching a minimum level of understanding with them.”
She considered that there was no longer any point in extending the negotiations, and she said that the next two days are supposed to constitute the last deadline for Bassil to resolve his matter on the grounds that Arslan and Wahhab are not in the process of abandoning Naji al-Bustani as the strongest Maronite in the Chouf, and he had obtained in the previous election cycle a significant percentage Of the preferential votes, even though his two allies on the list withheld their support from him as they should. The same sources promised that Aoun “supports Farid al-Bustani’s candidacy on the coalition list, while Basil does not object, although all he is concerned with is securing the victory of the Catholic, former Minister Ghassan Atallah, and this What lies behind the veto that the (Awni) gardener puts on the other gardener on the pretext that he is ahead of him electorally, specifically in the preferential votes, because some of them will be in Atallah’s interest.
She said that Farid al-Bustani fears that he will be in danger if another gardener, who enjoys better political conditions, runs for the Maronite seat, in addition to the victory of the MP George Adwan’s candidate for the second seat, provided that the third seat goes to the Chouf district for the benefit of the civil movement in the person of Dr. Najat Saliba. She pointed out that MP Al-Bustani’s failure to run in the elections on a single list that brings him and Naji Al-Bustani together will put the allies in front of two options; Either consensus or separation, although Bassil’s two allies tried to convince him to distribute the preferential votes of the (National Current) to MP Al-Bustani and Atallah was a condition for dispelling his concerns, especially as he bears the bulk of the electoral expenses of the coalition list.