Beirut/Wasim Seifeddine/Anatolia
On Thursday, the Lebanese parliament failed, for the tenth time since September, to elect a president to succeed Michel Aoun, whose term ended on October 31, in the last session of 2022.
This came during a parliamentary session attended by 109 deputies out of 128, according to Anadolu Agency.
Michel Moawad, the candidate of the “Lebanese Kataeb” party, got 38 votes, while 37 deputies voted with a white paper, while the rest of the votes were distributed among a number of Lebanese personalities, and other papers were cancelled.
Because of the lack of a quorum for the second session of the session, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri left the hall without setting a new date for electing a president for Lebanon.
According to Article 49 of the Constitution, the President of the Republic is elected in the first voting cycle by a two-thirds majority of 86 deputies, and the absolute majority (half + 1) is sufficient for the following sessions.
Parliamentary blocs accuse the representatives of the “Hezbollah” group and its allies of obstructing the election of the president by voting with white papers in the first round and then withdrawing so that the quorum for the second round is not completed.
While officials in the group say they want “a president who does not stab the resistance (Hezbollah) in the back.”
As for the previous parliamentary sessions to elect a president, they were held on September 29, October 20 and 24, November 3, 10, 17 and 24 and on the first and eighth of December of this year.
Consensus on the personality of the president is a key to his election, but this matter is linked to regional and international consensuses, according to observers.
As for the term of the Lebanese president, it will last for a non-renewable 6-year period, and he may not be re-elected until 6 years following the end of his first term.
The constitution does not oblige those wishing to run for the presidency to present nominations in advance, as any deputy can elect any Maronite Lebanese (according to the prevailing custom of sectarian sharing of powers), provided that there is nothing to prevent or contradict basic conditions such as age and criminal record.
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