
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri talks with outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on Nov. 28, 2024. (Credit: Lebanese Parliament/Ali Fawwaz)
While the country has been without a President since Oct. 31, 2022, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has set a new session for the election of a president for Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025.
At the start of a parliamentary legislative session, which opened with a minute's silence for the dead of the war between Hezbollah and Israel, the parliamentary speaker declared: “I swore to myself that as soon as the cease-fire ended, I would set the date for a session to elect a President of the Republic, so I am announcing a session on Jan. 9.” The cease-fire came into effect at 4 a.m. on Tuesday night. Berri also affirmed that this “next session of the presidential election will be fruitful, God willing” and that he would invite “the ambassadors to attend.”
'Putting an end to the destructive dynamic' in Lebanon
For his part, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, who chairs Parliament's Finance and Budget Committee, reiterated the importance of discussions on the country's future. “We are in favor of anything that will avoid a vacuum. Lebanon cannot continue with a vacancy in the presidency, in the army and in the institutions. We must put an end to the country's destructive dynamic,” declared the MP, according to the National News Agency (NNA). Parliament is currently meeting to vote, among other things, on extending the terms of office of the heads of Lebanon's security bodies, including the army's Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Aoun.
For over two years now, Lebanon has been without a president. Since the end of Michel Aoun's mandate, differences between Hezbollah and the rest of the Lebanese political class have prevented the election of a president. The last time a parliamentary session was called, on Oct. 22, 2024, it failed to take place due to a lack of quorum. Only 49 of the 128 deputies responded to the Speaker's call, well below the 65 required.
The last electoral session, the 12th since November 2022, was held on June 14, 2023. With 51 votes out of 128, Sleiman Frangieh, the candidate of the Amal-Hezbollah tandem, had defied the forecasts, which predicted a mere 45 votes. His rival, Jihad Azour, won 59 deputies (or even 60, as one ballot was “lost”). While the opposition camp wanted to see Sleiman Frangieh symbolically disqualified by his score, the Shiite tandem's efforts to reduce the gap between the two men seemed to have borne fruit.
Visit from Jean-Yves Le Drian
The announcement of the presidential election session came as French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Beirut as part of his efforts to unblock the political crisis. On Thursday morning, the top diplomat met former Aoun deputies Elias Bou Saab, Ibrahim Kanaan, Alain Aoun and Simon Abi Ramia, in the presence of the French ambassador to Lebanon, Hervé Magro. He discussed with them “developments after the cease-fire, the political path and the priority of electing a President of the Republic,” according to a statement. The French envoy also met MP Sajih Attieh, representative of the National Moderation Bloc, made up of former members of the Future Current.
“The discussion focused on the need to speed up the election of the President of the Republic, while the Quintet confirmed its strong commitment to resolving the Lebanese crisis,” according to a statement issued by the MP's press office. The Quintet is a committee made up of representatives from the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar.
In a televised speech on Wednesday, the Parliament Speaker, who is in charge of negotiations for a cease-fire on the Lebanese side, stressed the urgent need to quickly elect a president who “would not be considered a challenge to anyone.” Speaking shortly after Nabih Berri, the caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, hoped for the opening of a “new page” in Lebanon's history and the forthcoming election of a president.