Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the opening of the second parliamentary session to elect a successor to President Michel Aoun on Oct. 13, 2022. (Credit: Ali Fawaz/Lebanese Parliament)
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri convened Monday at 11 a.m. a fourth parliamentary session devoted to the election of a successor to President Michel Aoun, whose term expires on Oct. 31. The previous three sessions devoted to the election of a new president failed due to lack of prior political agreement on a candidate, as is customary in Lebanon, meaning no candidate achieved the two-thirds majority needed in the first round of voting to be elected president. The legislature has repeatedly lost quorum before the initiation of a second round of voting.
According to Berri, more than 110 MPs are attending the session, enough for it to continue, since the required two-third quorum is 86 out of 128 MPs. The deputies who were absent with an official excuse are Hassan Mrad, Hussein Haj Hassan, Jihad el-Samad, Nadim Gemayel, Ziad Hawat, Elias Khoury and Tony Frangieh.
Lebanon entered the presidential election period on Sept. 1, but Berri waited until Sept. 29 to call the first electoral session. Faced with a camp united behind Hezbollah, the opposition remains drowned in its differences, accentuated by the schism within the Forces of Change bloc MPs. While Zgharta MP Michel Moawad managed to increase his score from 36 votes in the first session to 42 in the third — the second session having been ended without any vote due to lack of quorum — he still seems far from gathering the support of a two-thirds majority, or 86 MPs, to be elected in the first round of voting.
In subsequent rounds, the president can be elected with an absolute majority of 65 votes. But to date, Parliament has not reached a second round of voting on candidates due to the loss of quorum at each of the sessions convened, with members of the camp loyal to Aoun and his allies withdrawing from the session after the first round of voting. At each session, Berri considers that the election process is reset, meaning Parliament again votes as if it is a first round ballot and the number of votes required to elect a president is 86.
The risk of a total vacuum in the executive branch looms over Lebanon as the end of Aoun's six-year term approaches, while the country has been without an active cabinet since May 22, following its assumption of caretaker status in the aftermath of parliamentary elections. The political party founded by Aoun, the Free Patriotic Movement, has scheduled a rally for Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Presidential Palace in Baabda to celebrate the end of the president's term in office.
Last Thursday, Berri said he will convene Parliament in consecutive sessions to elect a new president.
On Sunday, Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai criticized the electoral sessions, saying they are a "play." For his part, Nabil Kaouk, a member of Hezbollah's executive council, accused the United States and Saudi Arabia of interfering in the election.