Ukraine in Arabic | Lebanon 13th time failed to elect new president
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ The Lebanese parliament on Thursday failed again to elect a new president to replace incumbent President Michel Suleiman due to the lack of the required constitutional quorum, thus leaving the country's top post still vacant
The latest attempt to elect a president failed Thursday due to the lack of quorum, as only 57 deputies out of 126 members of parliament were present at the session. The quorum requires the presence of no less than 86 deputies.
The office of the president of Lebanon has been vacant for the last six months. Differences in the parliament are behind the current impasse.
The legislation is almost evenly divided into pro-Western and pro-Syrian blocks, which makes a consensus on the candidacy to replace former President Michel Suleiman hard to achieve.
Under the Lebanese Constitution, only a Maronite Christian elected by the parliament is eligible to become president. The Maronite Church belongs to the Catholic Church, and its followers make up 25 percent of the country's population.