BEIRUT — Member of Parliament Michel Aoun said Wednesday he was ready to face off with his Christian rival, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, in a presidential vote in Parliament if there was no third candidate, an unexpected stance that was quickly rebuffed by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

Jumblatt said he would not withdraw his party’s candidate, MP Henri Helou, from the presidential race as demanded by Aoun to attend a Parliament session to elect a president. “I respect Gen. Aoun’s opinion, but we have the right to a democratic competition,” Jumblatt said on his Twitter account.

Aoun, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, also demanded that rival parliamentary blocs pledge that there would be no deal behind the scenes over the presidential election as a condition to challenge Geagea over the country’s top post.

“I am ready to go to Parliament to fight the presidential battle against Geagea provided that all [blocs] pledge that there will be no deal under the table,” Aoun said in an interview with MTV station Wednesday night.

“If the presidential battle is confined to me and Geagea, I will go to Parliament,” he said. “The offer I made includes Geagea only because he has been challenging me. I want guarantees the presidential vote will take place and the [Parliament] session will not be turned into a party.”

Aoun’s remarks came shortly after Parliament failed Wednesday for the 15th time since April to elect a president over a lack of quorum, prompting Speaker Nabih Berri to postpone the session to Dec. 10.

Lebanon has been without a president since the end of Michel Sulaiman’s term on May 25.

Aoun and Geagea have engaged in military battles against each other from 1988 to 1990 during the Lebanese, when Aoun was the commander of the Lebanese army and Geagea was the leader of the Lebnese Forces militia. 

Lebanese Forces lawmakers Thursday welcomed Aoun’s call for a two-candidate election. But the Christian party’s allies, the Phalangists and the Future Movement, rejected the proposal.

Former President Amine Gemayel, who is the Phalangists’ leader, a potential candidate himself, described the proposal as a “war of elimination.”