Former Minister Jihad Azour, candidate for the LF-Kataeb-FPM-PSP-independents parliamentary coalition, was informed by MPs that the ballot paper lost during the election session on June 14 bore his name and not that of former Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud. Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri announced that day that the ballot contained the name of Baroud. According to MPs, he said so to avoid a recount.
Nabih Berri wanted to avoid showing that Azour had reached 60 votes, which would bring him closer to the (very dangerous) threshold (for Amal and Hezbollah) of 65 required by the Constitution.
Pursuant to Article 49 of the Lebanese Constitution, a candidate is only elected president if said candidate obtains a two-thirds majority of the votes in the first round and an absolute majority in the second round, i.e. half of the MPs vote (64) plus one. Jihad Azour was not far off the mark.
