Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun was elected on Thursday as the 14th president of Lebanon in a second round of the voting, ending more than two years of vacuum in the top post.
Aoun obtained 99 votes of the 128-member unicameral parliament, against 9 blank votes, two votes for Chibli Mallat and 18 invalid ballots.
The second round of the voting took place two hours after the first round, during which Aoun failed to make it with 86 votes, was suspended for consultations, notably between the two Shiite blocs of Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement and Hezbollah about their voting intentions in the second round.
In the first round, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army obtained 71 votes, against 37 blank ballots, two for Chebli Mallat, and 18 invalid ballots.
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