Lebanese Hezbollah has threatened to boycott a scheduled Sept. 25 parliamentary session to elect a new president if rival camps failed to reach a consensus on a presidential candidate, local media Naharnet reported on Saturday. "It is our democratic right not to attend if they don't agree with us on the candidate," Hezbollah legislator Hussein Hajj Hassan was quoted as saying.

According to Hassan, though Hezbollah would have its own candidate, the Shitte group views General Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement who has aligned himself with the Hezbollah-led opposition, as "a strong candidate."

Lebanese members of parliament (MPs) will assemble on Sept. 25 to elect a new president as incumbent President Emile Lahoud's term is due to expire in November, parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced on Thursday.

Lebanon's constitution rules that a presidential candidate needs a two thirds' majority vote from parliament in order to be elected, and if none of the candidates win outright in the first round there is a run-off, which requires a simple majority vote.

President Lahoud was elected to the position in 1998 and his term of office was extended for another three years in 2004.

Source: Xinhua