Tue Feb 18th, 2025

Optimism for Lebanese presidential election after two-year vacuum

January 8, 2025 ,
US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein during an official meeting with Najib Mikati, Prime Minister of Lebanon

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday expressed optimism and “very happy” about the possibility that a new president could be elected tomorrow in a vote in parliament, which would end the presidential vacuum that has lasted for more than two years.

"For the first time since the presidential vacuum, I feel happy because, God willing, tomorrow we will have a new president of the Republic," Mikati said, according to a statement from the press office of the Council of Ministers, released on his official social media account.

This was the only sentence Mikati made referring to the parliamentary session during a ceremony in Beirut for the launch of the “National Strategy for Integrated Solid Waste Management”, and it represents a clear indication of his confidence in ending the long vacancy in the post of head of state.

Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Aoun's mandate expired in October 2022, since the country's different political blocs have been unable to agree on a consensus candidate who can gather sufficient support, causing more than a dozen electoral campaigns in the Chamber to fail.

The last time the Lebanese parliament, with 128 legislators, met to try to elect a new head of state was on June 14, 2023, in what was the twelfth failed attempt to find a successor to Michel Aoun (2016-2022).

The Speaker of the Legislature, Nabih Berri, called for the new session of the chamber, dedicated only to the election of a new president, on January 9 and November 28, one day after the ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah came into effect.

Agencies contributed to this Aurora article.

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