Lebanese parliament fails to elect a new president for 15th time

On Wednesday, the Lebanese parliament failed to choose a president for the country for the fifteenth time, extending Lebanon’s political crisis.

According to Rassd news agency, Parliamentary Speaker Nabi Berri adjourned the session until 10 December.

According to Lebanon’s sectarian political system, the election of a new president, always held by a Maronite Christian, requires a two-thirds majority in the 128-seat parliament.

Most members of the 8 March political bloc, led by Hezbollah and General Michel Aoun of the Change and Reform bloc, have boycotted the parliamentary sessions to elect a new president because they want to agree upon a consensus candidate that can serve both 8 March and its political opponent, 14 March, led by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri of the Future Movement and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

14 March supports Geagea for the presidency; however, after he failed to win a majority in the first round of voting, 8 March subsequently decided to boycott the elections in favour of a consensus candidate. More recently, Hezbollah proposed Aoun’s candidacy instead, who heads the largest Christian party in the parliament.

Neither side’s candidate is able to win a majority of the votes without the support of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who has chosen his own candidate, MP Henri Helou.

Lebanon has not had a president since the end of the mandate of Michel Suleiman expired on 25 May 2014.

Since the end of Suleiman’s term, the government, composed of representatives of the different political forces headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam, has the powers of the president until the election of a new one, in line with Lebanon’s constitution.

The first meeting for the election of the Lebanese president was held on 23 April in the presence of 124 MPs, but no candidate received the majority required to become president.