The Shiite militia-party Hezbollah has called for the election of a new Lebanese president who «does not stab the resistance in the back,» after Parliament failed for the fifth time to elect a replacement for Michel Aoun, whose term expired on October 31.
«Let’s elect a president. If we want him to protect national sovereignty, preserve his constitutional promise and national interests, let’s elect a president who is not a confrontational one,» said Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc leader Mohamed Raad.
He said the group «wants a president who does not challenge anyone,» according to the Lebanese news portal Naharnet. We want him to know the value of martyrs and the importance of resistance in preserving and protecting Lebanon’s sovereignty,» he said.
Raad pointed out that the elected president’s decisions «must be sovereign.» «He should not bow to pressure and stab the resistance in the back,» he said, after Hezbollah and its allies voted blank during Thursday’s session.
The most voted candidate was Michel Muauad, who obtained 44 endorsements, to the eight of historian Isam Khalife and the vote received by former minister Ziad Barud. Lebanese Forces, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and Lebanese Phalanges backed Muawad.
To be elected, the president must obtain the support of two-thirds of the parliamentarians — 86 out of 128 — in the first round or an absolute majority in the event of further ballots, as provided for in Article 49 of the Lebanese Constitution.
Aoun was elected president in 2016 after nearly half a hundred parliamentary sessions that dragged on for two and a half years. Lebanon has been trapped for several years in a deep and protracted political, economic and social crisis that has resulted in more than 70 percent of the population living below the poverty line and a banking system paralyzed since October 2019.
