Parliament Of Lebanon Fails To Choose A President For The 12th Time

On Wednesday, lawmakers in crisis-torn Lebanon failed to pick a new president for the 12th time, the voting being marred by acrimonious disagreements between the influential Hezbollah and its opponents, who are supported by Iran.

The unsuccessful vote would escalate sectarian tensions in Lebanon, which is already grappling with one of the worst economic crises in history and is experiencing unprecedented political stalemate as a result of the disintegration of its legislature and partial empowerment of its cabinet.

The latest effort to elect a president was on January 19, and Lebanon has been without a head of state for more than seven months.

Sleiman Frangieh, who is supported by Hezbollah, faced off against Jihad Azour, the finance official who has mostly received the support of Christian and independent legislators, in the race for the presidency, which is reserved for a Maronite Christian under Lebanon’s complex sectarian power-sharing arrangement.

However, neither candidate received enough votes to pass the vote-counting threshold; in the 128-seat parliament, Azour received 59 votes and Frangieh 51.

All of the legislators were present for the election, but many of them departed the room after casting their votes, and quorum was lost before a second round of voting, where the winner just needs 65 ballots, could proceed.

Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah lawmaker, claimed that only “consensus” could result in a successful presidential election.

“We don’t impose (a candidate) on others, and we don’t want them to impose (one) on us,” Fadlallah told reporters before Wednesday’s session.

Analysts said the vote risked further entrenching a political stalemate, dimming hopes of saving the economy after three years of meltdown.

“At this stage, the most likely scenario is a prolonged vacuum,” analyst Karim Bitar said.

The international community has pushed legislators to choose a president who can work with them to achieve the reforms needed to enable the country to access billions of dollars in loans from outside.

Lebanon has been run by a caretaker ministry with limited authority for more than a year in addition to being without a president.

Hezbollah and its allies frequently submitted spoiled votes to obstruct voting in previous sessions.

They used a similar strategy in the most recent presidential election, which resulted in Lebanon going more than two years without a leader before Michel Aoun’s victory in 2016.

On Wednesday’s top page of the pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar, there was only the word vacuum.

Conventionally, the position of parliament speaker is held by a Sunni Muslim, and the position of prime minister is reserved for a Shiite Muslim.