Lebanon MPs discuss PM for 2nd day

Lebanese parliamentarians have headed for the second day of consultations in an attempt to elect the country’s new prime minister.

Having already secured the support of Hezbollah and its allies, former Prime Minister Najib Mikati has declared his willingness to head the next government.

Mikati says he is stepping forward with a promise to cooperate with all parties to help bring the country out of its current political stalemate.

He has presented himself as a candidate backed by the opposition March 8 alliance’s consensus.

Another candidate is caretaker Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri, who has announced his decision to seek the post again.

Lebanese Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, has endorsed the opposition’s hopeful Mikati.

The leader of the Progressive Socialist Party announced his decision to back Mikati together with six lawmakers from his faction.

The support is expected to give the opposition the number of seats they need to have to name the next prime minister.

Hariri’s government collapsed nearly two weeks ago following the resignation of eleven ministers from the coalition cabinet in a dispute over a US-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese former Premier Rafiq Hariri.

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah had earlier pledged the Hezbollah resistance movement’s support for the national unity in the country.

The two-day consultations started on Monday in the official residence of the Lebanese president in the mountain town of Baabda, overlooking the capital of Beirut.