A Parliament election session on Oct. 24, 2022. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
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Parliament failed to elect a president during its sixth attempt yesterday, fueling United Nations General Secretary Antonió Guterres’ “concern” over the “executive vacuum” in effect since Nov. 1. Parliament will reconvene next Thursday for a seventh attempt to name a new head of state, the third session in Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s initiative to hold weekly electoral sessions since the onset of the presidential vacuum. The results of yesterday’s vote were consistent with previous attempts, with more than 40 votes for Zgharta MP Michel Moawad and a majority of MPs casting protest ballots — mostly blank votes along with canceled ballots and votes for unlikely candidates. The blank votes are attributed to Hezbollah, the Free Patriotic Movement and their allies. A Hezbollah official on Sunday said the party was decided on a candidate; their contender, however, remains unannounced. Analysts speculate that the mystery candidate is Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh, who — after an endorsement by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati — received his first, though solitary, vote yesterday before being disavowed by Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil. Parliament will continue to reconvene for legislative sessions “whenever necessary,” Berri said.
Lebanon received 100,000 donated rotavirus vaccines, caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad said Thursday during a press conference. The vaccines are expected to inoculate “all children under the age of one” through a free vaccination campaign, Abiad said. The timing of the immunization program was motivated by the cholera outbreak. In early October, Lebanon recorded its first cholera case in nearly 30 years and has since registered 569 confirmed cases and 20 deaths. Both cholera and rotavirus are diarrheal diseases, particularly dangerous to children, that are mainly transmissible through contaminated water. The Health Ministry launched a vaccination campaign against cholera this weekend following the receipt of vaccine donations from a host of international actors.
Only four out of 15 appeals to the May 2022 Parliamentary election results are still pending after the Constitutional Council rejected two additional appeals. The council’s latest decision affirmed the victories of Amal Movement MP Fadi Alameh, independent MP Neemat Frem and Marada-affiliated MP Farid al-Khazen. A council source previously told L’Orient Today that the legal body aims to expedite its review of the demands to ensure the validity of presidential election results. Earlier this month, the council rejected four appeals after rejecting five others on Oct. 20. Election observers validated the election results overall, despite reporting various infractions.
The Civil Defense rescued several people who were trapped in their cars by heavy rainfall in Nahr Ibrahim, Jbeil, yesterday. Street flooding killed one man last month after he was swept away by a torrential downpour. The Civil Defense conducted similar rescue operations earlier this month after heavy rainfall endangered citizens trapped in their cars on the Ghazir coastal road and the Jounieh highway. Lebanon’s infrastructure, further weakened by three years of economic crisis, is ill-prepared for inclement weather. Water leakage caused the total shutdown of the Zouk Mosbeh power plant last month. Despite the recurrence of street flooding, authorities have done little to address the issue. Caretaker Public Works Minister Ali Hamieh and waste collection companies traded blame for the flooding, the former alleging that the cause is the obstruction of sewer drains and the latter claiming that the true culprit is years of infrastructural neglect.
In case you missed it, here's our must-read series from yesterday: “The hidden world of Captagon in Lebanon”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz