Process to Elect New Patriarch Underway, Predictions that he Will be Elected Today

The Maronite bishops have ended their retreat ahead of the election of a new patriarch, reported the daily An Nahar Saturday.

The retreat began Thursday morning and ended Friday night with the election scheduled to take place Saturday morning over a four-round process.

Two stages will take place in the morning, while the last two will take place later during the day.

Any bishop can run for the position of patriarch and garnering more than two thirds of the votes is enough for a candidate to become patriarch.

Informed sources told the daily that the election process will likely be sped up given that the two morning rounds will determine which of the candidates are most likely to garner votes in later rounds.

Sources monitoring the process predicted that a new patriarch will be elected in the next two days given that a number of bishops who arrived from abroad to take part in the election have already booked flights to return to their countries.

Other sources disregarded this matter, saying that the bishops can delay their flights and extend their stay in Lebanon.

Al-Akhbar reported that the election of a patriarch will be followed by the ringing of all church bells in Lebanon.