Beirut: Lebanon's presidential election scheduled for Tuesday will most likely be postponed to give room for the rival Lebanese factions to agree on a compromise, parliamentary deputies said.

Three parliamentarians from the two rival camps, all speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation and in the absence of a formal announcement, late yesterday said, the postponement aimed at allowing space for politicians and mediation initiatives to bear fruit.

The parliament was set to meet on Tuesday to try again to choose a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, who steps down November 24, after an opposition boycott prevented an election during the September 25 session.

Many politicians from the two rival camps, however, expressed doubts that a new president could be elected by then in the absence of an agreement on a consensus candidate by the deadlocked pro-government and opposition factions.

The postponement decision, which has yet to be formally announced by the parliament speaker, came after the foreign ministers of France, Italy and Spain travelled to Beirut and gathered leaders of both camps at the French ambassador's Beirut residence to urge them to agree on a candidate and stave off certain political chaos.

Just going ahead with a session without that consensus, the fear was, would risk a repetition of the earlier meeting and could further inflame political tensions in the country.

There are fears that if the deadlock persists, the country could end up with two rival governments, like what happened in the final two years of the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

Source : PTI