Parliament blank votes, walkout keep Lebanon without president
Divided lawmakers are running out of time to prevent a power vaccum
Daily TribuneDivided lawmakers are running out of time to prevent a power vaccum
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Lebanon's parliament failed Monday for a fourth time to elect a successor to President Michel Aoun, with lawmakers divided over a candidate opposed by the powerful Hezbollah movement.
Already governed by a caretaker cabinet, crisis-hit Lebanon is hurtling towards an imminent power vacuum, with just days before the current president's term finishes at the end of the month.
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri called for another vote on Thursday in the hope of overcoming long-running arguments.
A total of 50 lawmakers in Lebanon's 128-seat parliament left their votes blank, many from the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies.
Their rivals mostly backed lawmaker Michel Moawad, whose father Rene Moawad was a former president.
He has emerged as a frontrunner since parliament first met to name a president last month.
But Moawad, who won 39 votes on Monday, still was far short the 86 ballots needed — two-thirds of seats — to win.
University professor and activist Issam Khalife took 10 votes, cast by independent lawmakers who emerged from a mass 2019 anti-government protest movement, as well as others.
But the required quorum was lost before a second round could be held, after some lawmakers walked out — a recurring scenario in past votes.
Moawad's supporters accused Hezbollah and its allies of obstructing a second round of voting to negotiate with other blocs, effectively preventing the election.
"No bloc in parliament can impose a president, not Hezbollah nor anyone else," Elias Hankash, a lawmaker from the Kataeb Party that supports Moawad, said.
Hankash accused lawmakers who left parliament of "systematic disruption," because there were not enough lawmakers to make a vote legitimate.
Under Lebanon's longstanding confessional power-sharing system, the presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian.
