Head of the Kataeb party and MP Samy Gemayel. (Credit: NNA)
Without surprise, MP Samy Gemayel was re-elected head of the Kataeb party on Sunday, winning 357 votes among party delegates, against Abboud Kahaleh, who received 22.
Five invalid ballots and two blank ballots were counted, according to the figures published on the party's website.
This is Samy Gemayel third term at the head of the Kataeb. During the party's last elections in 2019, he was automatically reappointed as head of the party as he was the only candidate to run for the position.
At the time, the election of the Kataeb's new board took place against a background of heightened tensions within the party, as Nadim Gemayel, cousin of Samy, criticized the party's political choices.
On the occasion of his re-election, Samy Gemayel addressed the current political deadlock in Lebanon, which has still not elected a president since the end of Michel Aoun's term on Oct. 31.
"We have asked to exercise democracy, but they continue to obstruct. We ensure the quorum, while they do what they want, and this we will not accept," Samy Gemayel said in remarks reported by the state-run National News Agency. Gemayel regularly targets the camp of Hezbollah and its allies, who have voted blank in the first round vote at parliamentary sessions dedicated to electing a president and have then left the session, causing it to lose quorum, before a second-round vote can take place.
"Today we are setting a model of true democracy and we hope they will do the same," he continued. "Democracy is being put forward today, and we hope to set an example for other parties to adopt the culture of democracy as practiced by the Kataeb."
At the opening of the Kataeb party congress, on Friday, Gemayel threatened to "paralyze" the Lebanese presidential election if Hezbollah's candidate plans to "protect the weapons" of Hezbollah.