Parliament fails for fourth time to elect new president

Lebanon’s parliament on Monday failed for the fourth time to elect a new president for the country, only a week away from the expiry of President Michel Aoun’s term.

Out of 128 MPs, only 114 attended the vote’s first round.

As 50 MPs cast blank ballots, MP Michel Mouawad received 39 votes and prominent historian and academic Issam Khalife garnered 10. Thirteen lawmakers meanwhile voted for “New Lebanon”, one voted for “For Lebanon”, as MP Jamil al-Sayyed cast an annulled ballot carrying “condolences” over the situation.

Quorum was later lost and Speaker Nabih Berri initially announced that the next session would be held on Thursday. However, he swiftly said that he would announce the date of the upcoming session at a later date after Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab whispered in his ear. Bou Saab likely told him that the announced date coincides with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein’s visit to the country.

“The solution is to unite the opposition to obtain a majority,” Mouawad said after the session.

“We extend our hand to the other under the ceiling of the state, sovereignty and reform and we will not endorse the approach of submission which would lead to prolonging the current situation,” he added.

Mouawad also warned that “the consensual candidate that some political parties are seeking would have to submit his credentials to Hezbollah” and “if we accept this approach, this means that we are not offering anything to improve the lives of the Lebanese.”

“I tell Hezbollah that the approach of treason accusations that is being practiced against us cannot continue,” Mouawad went on to say, stressing that he will continued with his nomination.

MP Firas Hamdan meanwhile said that the majority of the Change MPs voted for Issam Khalife as MP Waddah al-Sadek announced that he voted for Mouawad, which is a first for a Change MP.

“I’m a change MP who is outside the (Change) bloc,” Sadek added.

“Dr. Issam Khalife has his credibility, but there is an audio recording for him in which he says that he does not want to run for president,” Sadek said.

MP Ashraf Rifi for his part told MTV that some MPs of the mainly Sunni National Moderation bloc did not vote for Mouawad, which led to a decline in the votes that he received compared to Thursday’s round.

“Speaker Berri’s call for dialogue is important and we support him, but it’s about time we left absurdity behind, because after the session (tentatively) scheduled for Thursday we will be facing a deadlock,” MP Hadi Abu al-Hosn told al-Jadeed TV.

Elias Hankash, a lawmaker from the Kataeb Party that supports Mouawad, said that "no bloc in parliament can impose a president, not Hezbollah nor anyone else."

Hankash also accused lawmakers who left parliament’s session and stripped it of quorum of "systematic disruption."

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.

Aoun was elected in 2016 after a more than two-year vacancy at the presidential palace, as lawmakers made 45 failed attempts to name a candidate.

Since late 2019, Lebanon has been crippled by an economic crisis, dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in recent history.

Economic meltdown has pushed most Lebanese into poverty.

Talks with the International Monetary Fund to unlock billions of dollars in loans have stalled, as Lebanese leaders have been unable to enact substantial reforms demanded by the lender and donor countries.