Lebanon’s parliament convenes to elect new president after 12 failed attempts in two years
In yet another attempt to fill a persisting vacuum, lawmakers in the deeply-divided parliament of Lebanon try to pick a president after 12 failed attempts during the past two years.
The 128-member parliament convened on Thursday to elect a successor to former President Michel Aoun, whose term ended in October 2022, marking a crucial effort to end a two-year political deadlock and take a significant step toward rescuing the war-battered nation from its lingering financial crisis.
In normal circumstances, a presidential candidate in Lebanon can be elected with a two-thirds majority of parliament members in the initial round of voting or with a simple majority in a subsequent round.
The frontrunner is Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun, who is not associated with the former president. He is widely regarded as the favored candidate of the United States and Saudi Arabia, on whose financial support Lebanon relies as it works to recover from a 14-month bombardment by Israel mostly against the Arab country’s southern parts where the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement is based.
Hezbollah, which had exchanged daily fire with the occupying regime from October 2023 until a ceasefire in November, had previously supported Suleiman Frangieh, the leader of a small Christian party in northern Lebanon, as its preferred candidate.
However, Frangieh on Wednesday announced his withdrawal from the race and threw his support behind Aoun, seemingly paving the way for the army commander.
Aoun will be challenged by International Monetary Fund's Middle East Director Jihad Azour, a former finance minister.
Since October 2022, the small Mediterranean country has been functioning without a formal government, which has worsened a financial crisis that prompted Lebanon to default on $30 billion in Eurobond debt some five years ago.
Lebanon’s divided sectarian power-sharing system is often susceptible to deadlock due to both political and procedural challenges. The country, which is currently struggling with its crises, has experienced multiple prolonged presidential vacancies, including the longest one, which lasted nearly two and a half years from May 2014 to October 2016, ending with the election of former President Aoun.
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