Lebanese parliament again fails to elect new president

The Lebanese Parliament failed for the ninth time to elect a new president due to lack of quorum, a new hearing has been set for August 12, the parliamentary press office said.

The Lebanese Constitution stipulates that 86 of the 128 members of parliament must be present at the session to elect a new president to serve a non-renewable six-year term, however only 65 were present at today’s meeting.

No successor has been agreed on since President Michel Suleiman’s tenure ended on May 25 last year. The Constitution allows the House of Representatives to elect any Maronite Christian.

Earlier this month, MP Michel Aoun suggested the Constitution be amended to allow the general public to elect the president directly in two phases, the first would see Christians elect two candidates, and the second would allow all Lebanese voters to elect one of the candidates. This suggestion was strongly rejected by various political forces.

Opposition groups said the election of a new president is a priority before any constitutional amendments, while others stressed that this was a “coup” on the Taif Accord, which ended the civil war in 1989 and provided equality between Muslims and Christians in government.