First Round of Lebanese Presidential Elections Ends Without Winners

The Lebanese parliament failed to elect a new president after the first round of presidential elections, which ended without any candidate obtaining the necessary two-thirds of the votes of parliamentarians.

General Joseph Aoun, head of the armed forces from 2017 until last year, received 71 votes. Two votes went to a candidate in the 2005 presidential election, Shebli Mallat, another 37 were blank and 18 votes were considered invalid.

Most of the invalid votes read "For the Constitution", an act of protest by the parliamentary group that considers Aoun's election illegal.

The leader of the parliamentary group, Nabih Berri, announced a two-hour recess until parliament meets for the second round of voting. At that point, Joseph Aoun will only need a simplified majority of 64 votes.

According to the Lebanese constitution, the 128 deputies elect the president, who must be Christian. Over the past two years, parliamentarians have been unable to reach a consensus on choosing a new head of state at a time when the country is facing a major economic crisis. 

In previous sessions, some candidates had come close to the 86 votes needed to be elected, but when the vote went to the second phase, most parliamentarians left the room to break the quorum, the number of deputies present required to proceed with the vote.

 These protests were led by the Shiite party Hezbollah and its allies, as a standoff to force the other parties to accept their chosen candidate or remain in a power vacuum. MP Paula Yacoubian, a member of a reformist group, got into a heated argument during Thursday's session when she criticized the political class, and especially Hezbollah, which she accused of trying to sabotage the election: "The Lebanese political class does not want a president who can do anything." After the war and the weakening of Hezbollah, the group lost much of its power and influence, which led to the selection of Joseph Aoun as a possible candidate.

Before today's vote, the party hinted that it would vote blank in the first round and that it would not block Joseph Aoun's election.

The Lebanese parliamentary session was attended by important diplomatic figures, such as French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian, Saudi ambassador Walid Boukhari and US envoy Amos Hochstein, who facilitated the ceasefire agreement with Israel, in a show of support from Western powers for Aoun's election, while others criticized external influence in these elections.

"We are witnessing the return of the era of consuls and the election of a head of state from abroad," Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (a Christian party allied with Hezbollah), criticized during the parliamentary session.

During the session, several MPs criticized the unconstitutionality of Joseph Aoun's election as president, since the Constitution prohibits the election of senior civil servants, such as him, without a two-year term of office.

Joseph Aoun retired a few months ago. However, in 2008, President Michel Suleiman was elected under the same circumstances.

While some MPs advocated amending the Constitution to allow Aoun to run, others opposed the military leader, and there were those who criticized what they considered the hypocrisy of following the Constitution now, after years of violations.