BEIRUT: Lebanese parliament has failed for the 10th time to elect a President on Thursday, prolonging an institutional void amid a deep economic crisis.
This week’s vote was reflected the previous session to elect a president, with many MPs spoiling their ballots, including one who cast a vote for “Nelson Mandela.”
Last week, Hezbollah opponent Michel Moawad won the support of 39 MPs, but fell well short of the required majority. Electing a president, naming a prime minister and forming a government can take months or even years of political horse-trading.
Lebanon can ill-afford a prolonged power vacuum as it grapples with a financial crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history, with a currency in free fall, severe electricity shortages and soaring poverty rates.
The country’s caretaker government is unable to enact the sweeping reforms demanded by international lenders as a condition for releasing billions of dollars in bailout loans.
Hezbollah opposes Moawad’s candidacy, and the Iran-backed group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah called last month for a president ready to stand up to the United States.
Moawad has good relations with Washington and has repeatedly called for the disarming of Hezbollah — the only faction to keep its weapons after the end of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
