Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (c) during the first election session for a new president in Lebanon, Sept. 29, 2022. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday called for a second election session on Oct. 13 at 11 a.m. to elect a successor to the President of the Republic Michel Aoun, two weeks after Parliament's first meeting for this purpose.
Here's what we know:
• On Sept. 29, 122 of the 128 deputies participated in the election session. After the first round of voting, 64 deputies voted blank, 36 voted for their colleague Michel Moawad (independent, North Lebanon III), 11 voted for Salim Eddé, co-founder of the company Murex and shareholder of L'Orient-Le Jour, 10 voted for "Lebanon," one for Mahsa Amini, the Iranian woman whose death after her arrest by the Iranian morality police provoked a nationwide and worldwide protest movement, and one for "the line of Rachid Karami," former prime minister assassinated in 1987. The session was subsequently adjourned due to a lack of quorum, as several deputies withdrew from the session.
• The risk of a double presidential and governmental vacancy hangs over Lebanon, while negotiations between President Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati around the formation of a new cabinet are still stagnating due to a political tug of war between them. This double vacancy would be a first in Lebanon's history. Many observers fear that Aoun, whose term of office expires on Oct. 31, will refuse to relinquish his duties, under the pretext that he believes an outgoing cabinet cannot exercise the functions of a head of state in the event of a vacancy.