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Explainer
Suleiman Farangieh and Jihad Azour are vying for the presidency, as Lebanon’s parliament meets for the twelfth time to elect a brand new chief.
The Lebanese parliament is about to satisfy to elect a brand new president, a course of that has failed 12 instances since 2022.
Two essential candidates are anticipated on Wednesday to succeed former president Michael Aoun: Marada get together chief Suleiman Farangi and Worldwide Financial Fund regional director Jihad Azour.
This is what you have to know:
Why did this course of fail so many instances?
Avon resigned on the finish of October 2022 and may have been changed earlier than that date.
Lebanon’s advanced confessional political system and the dearth of a transparent, unified opposition in parliament have made it troublesome to seek out frequent floor on a brand new chief.
In response to St. Joseph’s College senior researcher and professor Wissam Laham, the vote is prone to fail once more.
The session may doubtlessly be a turning level for the nation if Hezbollah and its allies don’t vote clean — one thing they’ve finished previously if they don’t endorse any candidate.
Who’re the candidates?
There is no such thing as a formal nomination for the place so it’s troublesome to inform earlier than the session begins who MPs will select between, as they’re allowed to vote for anybody.
On this spherical of voting, nevertheless, the competitors appears to be cut up between the Faringhe and the Azores.
Farangi is the grandson of Marada Get together chief and former president Suleiman Farangi (1970 to 1976). He was appointed Member of Parliament to fill his late father’s seat in 1991 and served three consecutive phrases till his resignation in 2005.
In 2009, he was elected MP for the Maronite seat of Zgharta-Zawyieh. His son, Tony Farangi, took over his seat in 2018, as is usually the case in Lebanon.
Jihad Azor is much less adept at politics. He was Lebanon’s finance minister underneath Fouad Siniora’s authorities from 2005 to 2008 and till final week held the place of regional director for the Center East and North Africa on the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF).
Azor not too long ago started to achieve help from the Azad Patriotic Motion and different opposition events, whereas Farangiya has been supported by Hezbollah and the Amal Motion for a number of months.
Michel Mowad, the chief of the independence motion and son of former president René Mowad, gained a majority of votes within the earlier session however by no means secured a quorum to succeed.
Different names may come up in tomorrow’s session, corresponding to former inside minister Ziad Barud.
What are the job standards?
Lebanon’s president should be of the Maronite Christian religion, based on the Nationwide Pact, an unwritten settlement between Lebanon’s political blocs that was first agreed in 1943.
Based mostly on the 1930 nationwide census, the Nationwide Pact stipulates that the president and military commander are Maronites, the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament is a Shia Muslim.
The positions of Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Deputy Prime Minister are held by Greek Orthodox Christians, and the Chief of the Armed Forces of the Basic Workers of the Armed Forces is at all times a Druze.
Parliament itself is split by a quota system, with a 6:5 ratio of Christians to Muslims and Druze.
How does voting work?
Parliament wants a quorum of 86 of the 128 lawmakers, or two-thirds, to elect a brand new chief within the first spherical of voting.
If MPs don’t agree with a candidate, they’ll solid their vote with symbolic slogans or to ship a political message by naming a candidate aside from the one being voted for.
Laham instructed Al Jazeera that it was extremely unlikely that two-thirds of the vote could be achieved within the first spherical on Wednesday.
If the session strikes to a second spherical of voting, the candidate wants a majority of 65 MPs to win.
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