First session fails to elect new president
Beirut (AsiaNews) – National Assembly Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned Tuesday's parliamentary session to elect a new president because of the lack of the two-thirds quorum required in a first round of voting. Deputy Speaker Farid Makari announced that the next session is October 23. Tanks and troops ringed the parliament building for Tuesday's session.
March 14 MP Mohammed Qabbani said there were more than 65 lawmakers, a simple majority, but less than 85—the necessary two-thirds quorum—in attendance when the announcement was made.
March 14 MPs were in the assembly chamber but many opposition MPs were in the foyer and hallways of the building.
For its part, main opposition party Hizbollah announced its intention to boycott the presidential poll unless a “consensus” candidate can be agreed beforehand.
Speaker Berri made the same point yesterday at the end of a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir with whom he sought “clarifications and advice.”
By constitutional convention Lebanon’s president must be a Maronite Christian.
An optimistic Berri said he was certain that Lebanon would have a president by November 24, when the mandate of the current president, Emile Lahoud, comes to an end.
In a clear message to the opposition, MPs from the ruling majority said they would go ahead and elect a president with a simple majority when the next session convenes.
"We are taking part in today's session to preserve our right to vote in a subsequent session with a simple majority," MP Elias Atallah said before entering parliament.
For March 14 MPs a “consensus” candidate is a byword for someone who is amenable to Syria, especially in relation to the future international tribunal which is expected to try the people involved in the many political murders that have cast a shadow on the country since 2004, a development which is bound to worry Syria.
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