Office vacant for a long time
Army chief Aoun becomes president of Lebanon
The Lebanese parliament has elected Chief of General Staff Joseph Aoun as the country's new president. Lebanon has not had a regular head of state since 2022.
Aoun received 99 votes in a second vote and thus achieved the required majority. Earlier on Thursday, the election had failed once again.
No candidate was able to prevail in the first vote. As the most promising candidate, Chief of Staff Aoun only received 71 of the 128 votes. He would have had to receive at least 86 votes to win. In the second round of voting, only at least 65 votes were required.
Joseph Aoun is currently responsible for monitoring the ceasefire agreed in November between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia and Israel. As a political party, Hezbollah is a key power factor in Lebanon.
No president since 2022
There was a heated debate in parliament before the votes. Some of the MPs refused to vote for Aoun. They argued that there would have to be a constitutional amendment first. According to the constitution, people who have held a senior civil servant post in the previous two years may not be elected president. However, this rule has already been broken for previous presidential candidates.
The small Mediterranean country is stuck in a political power vacuum. Lebanon had been without a president for more than two years after Michel Aoun - no relation to army chief Aoun - left office as planned in 2022. To date, the election of a president has repeatedly failed due to power struggles within the political elite.
High offices divided among religions
Since Michel Aoun left office, Prime Minister Najib Mikati has also been acting head of state for the country of around six million inhabitants. The current government is also only able to act to a limited extent. In Lebanon, the president must be a Christian, the head of government a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim, according to a proportional representation system based on ethnic and religious criteria.
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