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Even with a full-house attendance, Parliament failed to elect a president for the 12th time, amid an ever-deteriorating economic situation.
For the first time since October 2022, all of the 128 MPs showed up for the presidential electoral session that kicked off at 11am. This attendance raised the hopes of possibly coming out of the session with an elected 14th Lebanese president.
The first round of voting resulted in 128 casted ballots. However, only 127 were accounted for after announcing the results.
Parliament Secretary General Adnan Daher later stated that the 128th vote was an empty envelop. However, this contradicts the count of 127 envelopes.
Former Finance Minister Jihad Azour, who’s backed by the opposition camp, the Free Patriotic Movement, and several independent MPs, garnered 59 votes.
Former MP Sleiman Frangieh, who’s backed by the Shiite duo of Amal and Hezbollah, as well as their pro-Syrian allies, secured 51 votes.
The rest of the votes were spread out in the following manner: six votes for Former minister Ziad Baroud, one vote for Army Commander General Joseph Aoun, eight votes for New Lebanon, one vote for Jihad al-Arab, and one blank vote.
After casting their votes for Frangieh, Amal and Hezbollah’s MPs left the hall without even waiting for the balloting results, hence breaking quorum.
This is when the old charade took place, as Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, to the objection of most of the present MPs, closed the session without even setting a date for the next one, and ignoring the calls to restart the voting process or at least the counting of the votes.
The head of the Kataeb MP Samy Gemayel stated after the session that “Tuesday night, threats and pressure were exercised on several MPs and parliamentary blocs which led to some of those backing down from voting for Azour.”
MP Mark Daou said that “59 votes facing the threats that culminated in accusing us of taking orders from Tel Aviv, every MP should have stayed in the Parliament hall until a president of democracy is elected.”
MP Sethrida Geagea from the Strong Republic parliamentary bloc dubbed this session “unconstitutional and illegal” for the way Berri handled the matter of the missing vote and the closing of the session altogether.
In a call with This Is Beirut, Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Habchi delivered some strong jabs at what he described “an unacceptable manner to moderate the parliamentary session” by Berri.
“It was a battle between two camps and mentalities, one that wants a free sovereign Lebanon, free of all allegiances to any foreign powers, and another that wants to hijack the state’s decision-making power, especially in war and peace matters,” Habchi added.
He called on Berri to announce open presidential electoral sessions until a president is elected.
“If we fail to pull Lebanon out of this axis and bring it back to its natural organic status, we will seriously have to reconsider the country’s entire format and shape,” Habchi said.
As for the leader of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea, he tweeted the following: “If the second round of this electoral session was to take place as it was meant to be, we would have come out with an elected president today. What happened in Parliament today, and away from all the details, is an intentional and forced deadlock, not only regarding this session, but regarding the entire presidential elections.”
Berri called on all political factions to stop throwing the ball in each other’s court and prolonging the vacuum. The speaker added that electing a president will not be accomplished without a spectrum-wide agreement, but through dialogue.
The next course of action remains to be seen.
Will the same alliances stand the test of time? Will the same candidates stick to their candidacies? Will there be a third name that might play the role of a “settlement” candidate? And most importantly, will Berri set a date anytime soon for the 13th presidential electoral session?
This is an imperative decision to make, for it directly affects the entire functionality of a country, currently in its dying moment caused by a consecutive clinical organ failure.
