Lebanese lawmakers are set to elect a president after more than two years of deadlock, in a much-needed step to help lift the war-battered country out of financial crisis.
The legislative session comes with 17 days remaining in a ceasefire that called for the deployment of Lebanese troops alongside UN peacekeepers as Israeli forces withdraw from the country’s south.
However, international pressure has mounted for a successful outcome with just 17 days remaining in a ceasefire to deploy Lebanese troops alongside UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon after a Hezbollah-Israel war last autumn.
On Thursday morning, 71 out of 128 lawmakers voted in favour of the army commander, short of the required 86, in the first round of the vote.
Thirty-seven members of parliament voted blank, including 30 lawmakers from the pro-Hezbollah bloc, according to a source close to it.
Twenty ballots where declared null and void.
Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun on Thursday fell short of the two-thirds majority to become president in the first round of a parliamentary vote, but could still become head of state.
Aoun would only require a simple majority, or 65 votes, in the follow-up round.
The Mediterranean country has been without a president since Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022. The two men share a family name, but are not related.
The president’s powers have been reduced since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, but filling the position is key to overseeing consultations towards naming a new prime minister, who would lead a new government capable of carrying out reforms demanded by international creditors.
