Lebanon: countdown to ten days of the power vacuum

The Lebanese Parliament.

(Photo: Reuters)

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Lebanese MPs once again failed Thursday, October 20 to elect a successor to the President of the Republic Michel Aoun, fueling fears of a power vacuum when the Head of State's term expires on October 31.

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With our correspondent in Beirut

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For the third consecutive time since September 29, Lebanese deputies failed to elect a President of the Republic on Thursday.

But unlike the session of October 13, the legal quorum of 86 deputies was ensured, since 119 of the 128 parliamentarians were present.

However, no personality obtained the 65 votes necessary to be elected, even if the candidate supported by a party of the opposition, the deputy Michel Moawad, improved his score from 36 to 42 votes.

The deeply divided Lebanese parliament remains unable to elect a successor to

without an agreement on a consensus candidate between the main political parties. 

Because even if Michel Moawad also obtains the support of the 13 candidates close to the challenge, themselves divided, he remains far from the mark.

The next president cannot be elected without an agreement between, on the one hand, Hezbollah and its Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, and, on the other hand, the opposition, represented by the Lebanese Forces of Samir Geagea and the bloc of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

However, at this stage, all these political forces, capable of carrying a candidate for the supreme office, have not agreed on a consensual personality.

And nothing says that they will manage to do it in the next ten days.

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• Lebanon

• Michael Aoun